Ayako Kita
Quiet but hardcore: surreal wooden sculptures from Japan
"I try to stay loyal to what motivated me to start creating things – the desire to see things I've never seen before."
Ayako Kita makes beautifully crafted wooden sculptures. They're quiet but hardcore, tender but surreal. Even though the sculptures are pretty small and delicate, Kita starts them all with a powerful chainsaw. Outside her studio, she chops up huge tree trunks into smaller bits. Then, she works with each smaller chunk to carve it into shape. The detail is impeccable. Each strand of hair and facial feature is perfectly sculpted and realistically painted. The figurines are lifelike but stylised. They seem innocent, but they often have a weird, folklorish twist. Some have four feet like a horse, wh...
Ayako Kita makes beautifully crafted wooden sculptures. They're quiet but hardcore, tender but surreal. Even though the sculptures are pretty small and delicate, Kita starts them all with a powerful chainsaw. Outside her studio, she chops up huge tree trunks into smaller bits. Then, she works with each smaller chunk to carve it into shape. The detail is impeccable. Each strand of hair and facial feature is perfectly sculpted and realistically painted. The figurines are lifelike but stylised. They seem innocent, but they often have a weird, folklorish twist. Some have four feet like a horse, while others wear pixelated dresses in a subtle wink to our digital age.
Kita tries to keep her process as pure as possible. It’s the small things in life that inspire her. Images just "pop up" in her mind or naturally come from her hand when she draws in her sketchbook. There is a loving and generous attention to detail in everything she does. But at the same time, Kita has this hardcore dedication to her craft. Her commitment to carving wood also speaks to Japan's wood carving traditions. But inevitably, she makes them her own. "I try to stay loyal to what motivated me to start creating things – the desire to see things I've never seen before."
Ayako Kita (she/her) is a Japanese artist born in 1981 in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.
Kita knew she wanted to be a sculptor from a young age. "When I was in fourth grade, I made vegetables using clay," she says. "I really enjoyed it and was good at it, so I wanted to pursue this further."
If Kita wasn't an artist, she would like to be an archaeologist.
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