Glimpse, 2025. String, yarn, discarded electrical cable, rubber tube, elastic cord, foam, and cloth.
Sculptural strands coil, twist, and pulse with an almost electric vitality in the work of Sato Sugamoto. Using colorful fibers and electrical cords, Sugamoto constructs intricate, entangled forms that evoke the unseen architectures of human thought. Rooted in her experience of navigating Japan’s cultural expectations, Sugamoto’s practice reflects an ongoing negotiation between societal conformity and individual autonomy, rendering the internal landscape as something both structured and unstable.
In her series Glimpse, Sugamoto turns her attention to the physiological and psychological effects of social media, producing a work that is as seductive as it is critical. The piece operates as a complex homage to the invisible flows of information that saturate contemporary life, visualizing the constant transmission occurring behind our screens. Entwined bands of color—reminiscent of frayed nerve sheaths and electrical wiring—generate a sense of urgency, mimicking the adrenaline-driven engagement of digital consumption.
The composition appears immediate and immersive at first encounter, yet its intricacies resist such rapid viewing. Only through sustained, close inspection does its wavelike topography fully emerge, positioning slowness as a quiet act of resistance against the fleeting, surface-level interactions encouraged by social media platforms.
The tension is further complicated by Sugamoto’s own position as an artist within these systems. Glimpse reflects her awareness of the paradox inherent in circulating artwork online: the compression of labor-intensive, materially complex works into instantly consumable images. The piece is a pointed rumination on complicity and participation, echoing the compulsive loop of visibility and self-promotion that defines contemporary digital culture. In this way, Sugamoto not only represents the flow of information but also implicates both artist and viewer within it.
If her project Glimpse examines the external pressures of digital life, the Balance series shifts inward, exploring the negotiation between women’s autonomy and the structures that seek to define it. Here, Sugamoto juxtaposes curved, organic forms with sharp, rigid elements. The former evokes the fluidity of women’s minds and bodies, while the latter stands in for the imposed frameworks of societal expectation.
The use of materials historically associated with domestic labor, such as yarn, further anchors the work within a gendered context, while simultaneously reconfiguring these materials as sites of strength rather than limitation. They oscillate between tension and release, their forms suggesting both fragility and endurance. Rather than positioning vulnerability as a defining condition, Sugamoto foregrounds resilience as an accumulative force. The integration of industrial pipes into compositions reinforces this dynamic. Delicate fibers become structural components capable of bearing weight. In doing so, the works articulate a complex equilibrium: women do not simply resist societal pressures, but absorb and transform them, incorporating these forces into their own evolving frameworks of strengths.
Across both series, Sugamoto’s practice is marked by a temporal dimension that resists immediacy. Her labor-intensive, hand-crafted processes mirror the slow circulation of energy within the body. This temporality stands in stark contrast to the accelerated rhythms of contemporary life, inviting viewers to reconsider how meaning is formed—not in the instant of consumption, but through sustained engagement.
By materializing the intangible, Sugamoto creates sculptural environments that are at once intimate and expansive. Her work does not simply depict internal states; it reconstructs them, offering a tactile and spatial experience of the forces that shape how we think, feel, and exist within increasingly complex social and technological systems.
Sato Sugamoto’s fiber sculptures translate the invisible flow of digital information into immersive, tactile forms.
Glimpse, 2025. String, yarn, discarded electrical cable, rubber tube, elastic cord, foam, and cloth.
Glimpse, 2025. String, yarn, discarded electrical cable, rubber tube, elastic cord, foam, and cloth.
Through handwoven materials, the works examine the tension between women’s autonomy and the structures that seek to shape it.
Balance, 2025. String, yarn, cloth, foam, copper, aluminium, iron, brass.
Balance, 2025. String, yarn, cloth, foam, copper, aluminium, iron, brass.
Balancing fragility and strength, these labor-intensive sculptures reveal how internal resilience is formed through sustained negotiation with external forces.
Balance, 2025. String, yarn, cloth, foam, copper, aluminium, iron, brass.
Balance, 2025. String, yarn, cloth, foam, copper, aluminium, iron, brass.
Glimpse, 2025. String, yarn, discarded electrical cable, rubber tube, elastic cord, foam, and cloth.
