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SHINGU SAYAKA
Born in Osaka in 1979, Shingu Sayaka is a contemporary ceramic artist based in Osaka, Japan. She is well-known in and outside Japan for her ceramic flower sculptures, though she creates both functional and sculptural works. Her pieces feature monochromatic mixed clay with slip and glaze Shingu takes on floral motifs as a metaphor for impermanence, ephemerality, and fleeting beauty Flowers are an ever lasting theme for artists, most notable in the west are the works of Robert Mapplethorpe and Georgia O'Keeffe to name a few.
In Japan, 無常 (Mujyo/ mutability, uncertainty, impermanence) is one of common sense. People loves 桜(Sakura/ Cherry blossoms) because it lasts not too long. Many arts have been made for that fleeting beauty One of the six best waka poets of the early Heian period, Ono no Komachi (⼩野⼩町 825-900), who was renowned for her unusual beauty, wrote the above poem about the flower and its fleeting beauty.
The flowers withered
Their color faded away
While meaninglessly
I spent my days in the world
And the long rains were falling
