Keita Miyazaki’s sculptures feature materials whose association suggests strident discord and unfamiliar visual language. Discarded car engine components are welded together and then combined with coloured origami-like folded paper and sewn felt, fashioning sculptures of contradiction and aesthetic intrigue. An element of sound inspired by the jingles found in Japanese supermarkets and metro stations is often incorporated through small speakers echoing the cacophonic persistence of city life and the banalisation of daily existence. The juxtaposing of solid and universal materials such as metal against light and fragile paper and felt, escape formal paradigms, rather evoking a sense of post-apocalyptic reconciliation. Signaling a formal departure from his hybrid biomorphic sculptures, Miyazaki’s latest body of work draws on the ‘Vanitas’ of seventeenth century Dutch painting igniting profound philosophical meditations on the transience of human existence; in response to the redundancy of our supposedly coveted industrial society, the fascination with ruins and the beauty inherent within them has informed Miyazaki’s whole practice from recuperating the relics of a defunct age to the insertion of found objects.
Keita Miyazaki (*1983; Tokyo, Japan) lives and works between Tokyo and London.
Miyazaki completed a PhD in craft metal casting at Tokyo University of the Arts and at the Royal College of Art. His work has been presented in numerous shows in UK and Japan, including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Daiwa Foundation in London. A monumental work by Miyazaki was selected for Sculpture in the City exhibition in London. Miyazaki presented works at the Palais De Tokyo as part of the exhibition ‘Childhood | Another Banana Day for the Dream Fish’, he also presented works for ‘Second Hand’ at the Jameel Arts Centre and ‘I Say Yesterday, You Hear Tomorrow’ at the Fondazione Benetton.
His work forms part of numerous private collections in the U.K, Italy, Switzerland, Ireland, Hong Kong, Japan, USA, India and UAE. Museum and corporate collections include: UAE Mortimer Collection, Centre Point, Ogi Kankou, Ltd. JapanVictoria and Albert Museum, Daiwa Foundation, Mori Arts Centre Japan, Aoyama Spiral Hall Japan, Ogi Kankou Ltd, Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture Japan, Mortimer Collection London and Centre Point London.