Overcoming gravity
Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1942, Akiko Sato has worked as an artist for over 50 years now. Exhibiting consistently since the 1970s, her textiles, sculptures and print-works have been shown predominately in Switzerland but also throug out Europe, South America and Japan. She currently splits her time between Zurich, Switzerland and Forte dei Marmi, Italy.
Although her primary output as an artist has been through sculpture and print, Sato originally studied Textile Design with Professor Margret Hildebrand (1917–1997) at HFBK from summer semester 1966 to summer semester 1967. Her website (last accessed in Dec 2025 and now defunct) also detailed that prior to her studies in Germany, she had attended the Tokyo National Academy of Fine Arts between 1961 and 1963, and studied under Japanese artists Keisuke Serizawa 1 , Yotsumoto and Utsuki.2
According to the Swiss Institute for Art Research (SIK-ISEA), Sato took part in several textile-art focused exhibitions across Europe between 1978–1981. This included two shows as a member of the Swiss textile art collective Textilkunst Gruppe 78, the first at Kornhaus, Bern, in 1978, and then in Koppel 66, Kunst & Handwerk, Hamburg in 1981 – 4 years after her studies at HFBK.3 She also exhibited in larger group shows during this time, including the fourth edition of the “International Exhibition of Miniature Textiles” in 1980. Hosted in the British Crafts Centre in London, the exhibition featured 71 contemporary textile artists.4 Despite featuring in these and other exhibitions during this period, there is very limited information available regarding the artist’s specific involvement or the work featured. In general, there is very little information available regarding Sato’s textiles or tapestries.
“The stone contains my spirit”5
When it comes to Sato’s stone sculptures, the situation is quite different. Both the website of the artist’s former gallery6 as well as those of the institutions that showed Sato’s work feature images and texts that give an impression of Sato’s artistic approach. The invitation card for her 2023 exhibition “Vergänglichkeit und Passion” (Transience and Passion), held at Kabinett Visarte Zürich, describes her sculpture and print making as marked by the themes of time and transience as well as an interest in the five elements of Japanese philosophy that it lists as heaven, earth, fire, water, and wind.7 The invitation text also touches on Sato’s disinterest towards associations with concrete forms or objects.
Having been unable to view Sato’s stone works in person, I looked to the artists’ website to survey them. My descriptions are therefore tied to the documentation and presentation of the works. Here, I was initially struck by the use of lighting in the documentation photography. Its softness exaggerates the smooth and mottled surfaces of the materials as the light searches across the organic, fluid forms. The backdrops offer contrast to the stones, and the images highlight the broad range of colour and depth of tone found in the hard, monochromatic materials like marble, onyx or granite. Sato’s curves, arcs, twists and turns create interior and exterior spaces within the sculptures. At times I find that the precision of the curves appears almost mathematical or algorithmic – as if they would visualise a sound or a signal. In these pieces, I see similarities to the rational principles of Max Bill and his modernist sculptures. In other examples they appear, to me, as if they had been worn into form by natural causes – guided by a strong wind or current. In terms of scale, they are no larger than one meter at their widest point and mostly appear as if they could be picked up and carried from place to place if you had the sufficient strength. The scale seems to me to be in proportion with both the artist’s hand and the tools that would make them.
Beside their form, another key component to the sculptural works is their presentation in the exhibition space. It is detailed in the handout from her most recent group show, “weg” (a way), at Helmhaus, Zurich, 2024, that the artist actively encourages the visitors to actually touch the works. Making them tangible, she opens up the opportunity to feel the textures and shapes and to follow the surfaces with our hands 8 Simon Maurer, curator of the show, describes the texture of her stone sculpture as “finer than silk”, stating that “her work possesses an unfathomable sensuality.” 9 I think that this type of relationship to the work is a reward for the generosity shown by the artist toward the viewer – through touch, the artist opens up a new channel to experience the work. Maurer stresses that whilst utilising her exceptional material sensitivity, Sato manages to balance strenuous physical processes with a restraint that can often result in the stone being left relatively un-worked. I think this restraint is a skill that can only be developed with a deep understanding of the material in which the artist is working – showing a respect to the stone and its natural state.
Although Sato’s practice shifted relatively quickly from textiles and tapestries to stone, I feel that the influence of Serizawa becomes apparent both in her precise print works and in her generosity to make her stone sculptures tangible. I could imagine that Serizawa’s connection to mingei and his relationship to beautiful but functional objects, would have a lasting effect on how an artist might approach the idea of an exhibition and displaying their work. 10 And although Sato’s work appears to me like “fine art” and is shown in a “fine art” context, her openness and generosity offer a new level of accessibility to the viewer. It doesn’t break out of the gallery space, but it does remove a large barrier between the public and the work. A nod, I feel, to the anonymous objects, used and lived with, that were gathered and championed by Yanagi, Serizawa and the Mingei movement.