Utako Shindo

Utako Shindo

Utako Shindo is inspired by ‘the untranslatable’ and moved to create poetic places where nuanced ‘shadow-light’ transfers into, and out of, a fertile silence. The artist employs various utsuru, or processes that reflect, project, trace, emerge and transfer. Residing and engaging with several sites in both Japan and Australia, Shindo investigates how objects embody place within the grand narrative of time.  

The Works

Ode to Zephyr’s murmuring petal #1, Part 1 & 2   2018 

Cyanotype prints on paper 
Courtesy of the artist, with the support of Sutton Gallery, Melbourne 

How it just remains, how it subsides, and how it undoes ‘I’  2018 

Single channel, moving image, with sound  
Courtesy of the artist, with the support of Bundanon Trust, NSW 

As it were a meteorite of the earth’s shadow #1-15   2018 
Plaster relief 
Courtesy of the artist, with the support of Sutton Gallery, Melbourne 

Listening to Misterioso   2011-18 

Single channel, moving image, with sound 
Camera assistance by Alex Kershaw in 2011.  
Courtesy of the artist, with the support of Sutton Gallery, Melbourne 

Night Site #1-6   2018 

Colour inks on Kakita paper
Courtesy of the artist, with the support of Bundanon Trust, NSW and Kawalabo! Kawara Printmaking Laboratory, Tokyo.

Images
Installation view of How it just remains, how it subsides, and how it undoes ‘I’ and Night site #1-6, 2018. Installation view courtesy of ACP and Michael Waite.

Detail of Ode to Zephyr’s murmuring petal #1, 2018

About the Artist

Currently based in Tokyo, Utako studied at Rikkyo University and has participated in many international art projects and programs. Utako has stayed for extended periods in Australia, studying at the Victorian College of the Arts before completing her PhD at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Ideas. 

Actively exhibiting in Australia and Japan, Utako’s work has been displayed at Centre for Contemporary Photography, Margaret Lawrence Gallery and Sutton Gallery in Melbourne. In Japan her work has been exhibited at BankART Studio NYK, Yokohama; KANZAN Gallery and HAGI ART, Tokyo; and Kurumaya Museum of Art, Oyama. She has undertaken residencies at Bundanon and Bogong, in New South Wales, as well as the Arquetopia Foundation in Peubla Mexico. In 2019, Utako’s year-long research and creative project in New Mexico, USA, was supported by a Fellowship from the Agency of Cultural Affairs, Japan.  

Explore the Project