Emergence-Sayaka Ganz

 Emergence

Emergence, 

Year: 2008, 

Two pieces installation: Night, Reclaimed (mostly black and clear plastic) objects, 

72” x 50” x 17”, 

Wind, Reclaimed (mostly white and clear plastic) objects, 

63” x 78” x 26”

     Sayaka Ganz was born in Yokohama, Japan and grew up living in Japan, Brazil, and Hong Kong. She has been living and working in Indiana for 15 years. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Indiana University Bloomington and continued to create welded sculptures of animal forms independently. In 2008 she received a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in Bowling Green, Ohio. Currently she teaches design and drawing courses at Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW).

     Using post-consumer plastic objects as her materials, Sayaka’s recent sculptures depict animals in motion with rich colors and energy. Her recent exhibitions include: “Convergence” – solo exhibition in the Visual Arts Gallery, IPFW, “Orchestration” – solo exhibition in the atrium of the Foellinger Freimann Botanical Conservatory, “Finding Freedom”- MFA thesis exhibition at the Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery, BGSU.

     In March 2009 she was one of the visiting artists for the Foundation for Art and Music in Elementary Education (FAME), showing and speaking about her work to the children at the schools in the greater Fort Wayne area. Currently Sayaka is working on a permanent sculpture for the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. She is also working with two colleagues on a public art project in Toledo, Ohio. She will have a solo exhibition at the Science Central, Fort Wayne in September 2009.

      "My working process is reminiscent of my experiences growing up in several different countries, of being disconnected from the place I was born. Then, I began searching for a new community where I truly belong. I find discarded objects from peoples’ houses and give them a second life, a new home. For my sculptures I use plastic utensils, toys and metal pieces among other things. I only select objects that have been used and discarded. The human history behind these objects gives them life in my eyes.  My goal is for each object to transcend its origins by being integrated into an animal form that seems alive. This process of reclamation and regeneration is liberating to me as an artist.

By building these sculptures I try to understand the human relationships that surround me. It is a way for me to contemplate and remind myself that even if there is conflict right now, there is a way for all the pieces to fit together. That even if some people don’t feel at home here and now, there is a place where they belong and that they will eventually find it." --Sayaka Ganz.
     To create her sculptures, Ganz finds discarded objects including plastic utensils, toys, and metal pieces and gives them a second life and a new home...

    This piece belongs in my gallery because it brings new life to old objects, it take ugly old tossed out trash into something beautiful and amazing to look at.