Oishi Sayaka’s latest series, Memento Mori, reimagines skull and flora iconography in the form of functional ceramics. This particular drinking vessel, which also serves as a decorative desk accessory, includes...
Oishi Sayaka’s latest series, Memento Mori, reimagines skull and flora iconography in the form of functional ceramics. This particular drinking vessel, which also serves as a decorative desk accessory, includes a detachable glass compartment. Sayaka’s exploration of glass introduces a sense of lightness and ephemeral beauty to the otherwise somber theme, crafting a compelling contrast. It invokes a classic image of a skull resting on a scholar’s desk.
After receiving her BFA at the Kyoto University of Arts in 2003, Oishi Sayaka (born 1980) has honed her gorgeous maximalist style of iconography to express fantastical renditions on her ceramic surfaces that encompass both sculpture and functional vessel forms. What may initially appear as a random amalgam of life forms and their fragments reveals itself as a deeply humanistic expression of life, an affirmation of a sense of co-existence with the natural world. Through her vibrant, maximalist designs, Oishi’s ceramic works bring forth entire worlds, and by doing so she instills an unmistakable sense of wonder.