Naoki Sutter-Shudo

Naoki Sutter-Shudo works in sculpture, installation, painting and photographic prints. His practice is shaped by his love for objects, developed during his childhood spent in Tokyo, surrounded by antiques. His composed works demonstrate a sharp understanding of colour, form and texture, presenting descaled universes and speculative worlds, organic and manufactured. The artist’s use of architectural models alongside objects – shrunk planetary systems, stuffed animals, shadowboxes similar to those by artist Joseph Cornell, fake flowers, dead bees – remind one of concrete poetry turned three-dimensional. Inspired by Georges Bataille and Soetsu Yanagi, Sutter-Shudo revisits a 1930s and ‘40s artistic tendency to de-functionalise objects and rewire their essence and use. The eloquence of his works lies in the simplicity of form and the rich mythicism of their substance.