Satoko Kako　加古智子

Satoko Kako moved to Berlin in 2005. Having come across a special feature on Berlin in Bijutsu Techo magazine, which she had fondly read during her high school years, she had intuitively gained the urge to travel to this city one day. While being the capital of Germany, the city of Berlin is home to many large parks, and even amidst the hustle and bustle of everyday life, permeates with a leisurely atmosphere of sorts. Being a place that attracts creators of various nationalities and racial backgrounds from all over the world, opening parties and art events are held there in some place or another every week. Berlin, where the entire city itself appeared to pursue and embrace art, had indeed possessed the “freedom” that she sought. Despite being a foreigner and setting foot on unknown soil without any backup, the city had welcomed Kako and supported her in her artistic endeavors. This environment that exposed her to many different cultures and allowed her to pursue her practice in the company of friends and acquaintances who too were active in the creative field, truly had a significant influence on her artistic career and life as a whole.

After graduating from an art college in Japan, Satoko Kako enrolled at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste München to study Fine Art. Surprisingly, it is only recently that she began engaging with ceramics, having initially worked in the field of painting upon completing her studies. When she had become a mother and was caring for her young child, she happened to take part in a ceramics workshop in Kyoto. Clay was thus something that she had encountered amidst her busy days of raising her child and continuing to work as a painter. Having recalled her childhood days when she was free, and enjoyed working with clay and crafts, she instinctively felt that “this was it.” Overwhelmed by her explosive creative desire, she soon set up a kiln in her studio, and became engrossed in the world of clay.

Kako’s works, as an artist self-taught in ceramics, demonstrate an endless air of spontaneity and freedom through their equable forms achieved through hand-building as well as lines painted in an array of colors. Grounded upon her experience in painting, her works deviate from the stereotype and conventions of the “vessel” –exciting those who set eyes upon through her free use of colors reminiscent of applying paint to canvas. In both her painting and ceramic works, Kako places value on fortuity that does not adhere to any means of pre-established harmony. The colors and shapes that are born by chance at times exceed expectations. The artist describes her encounters with such fortuity as bearing similarities to raising a child. Everything from happenings that don’t go as planned to the communication that arises amidst them, are all preciously cherishing. “Imperfections” that bring about such fortuity are both the theme of her work and is a theme within her life.

Rather than what is special or out of the ordinary, Kako gains ideas from all manner of things such as trivial events, scenes, and fashion that she comes across throughout her everyday life. Among them, the time she spends with her child is a great source of inspiration. What she has most recently been influenced by is “Pokémon.” While drawing Pokémon characters day after day due to requests from her child, she gradually started to gain many clues from their shapes and color combinations, as well as their concept that are inspired by the natural world. For Kako, who in the first place had started working with ceramics after giving birth to her child, parenting is likely both a significant driving force and a foundation for her practice. Labels such a painter or ceramicist do not seem to bear much meaning in terms of discussing her artistic activities. It simply comes down to the fact that what she had encountered in her pursuit to fulfill her creative desires as an artist, simply happened to be canvas, and clay. Although her chosen medium may change, her enthusiasm for expression and her thirst for freedom are that which remains unchanged.