“Life is finite,” says artist Haruka Sawa. ”However, we attempt to forget that by telling ourselves that we have infinite time. Triggered by moments in the present, our thoughts and memories colour our perceptions of the future”. These big-picture concepts are what Sawa grapples with through her exploratory artistic practice, spanning across painting, installation, photography, and sculpture. Sawa grew up in Japan where Buddhist ideas of the passing of time, mortality and the fragility of life permeated her practice, releasing themselves onto her canvases, as seen in her latest series of oil paintings. These meditative works have watery edges that bleed out, alluding to the emotive depth of the subject matter. Sawa has exhibited extensively across Australia and overseas for the past decade, including at Bus Projects and Daine Singer in Melbourne, at Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, in Brisbane as part of the James Street Festival hosted by the Institute of Modern Art and at the Powerhouse as part of the 2high Festival. In 2019, Sawa was a recipient of the Sidney Myer Foundation’s National Assist Art Grant and has been an artist in residence at The Lock-Up, Newcastle, as well as previously being awarded the Clayton Utz LAUNCH Art Award.
Featured Image:Haruka Sawa, Time will tell, 2022. Oil on canvas, 600 x 515cm.Courtesy: the artist.