Tsuyoshi Anzai

Lives and works in Chiba, Japan

Artist statement

I create multidisciplinary works that explore the relationship between humans and objects, focusing on plastic as both material and metaphor. My kinetic sculptures, made from everyday items and motors, move unpredictably between the controllable and uncontrollable. Plastic, disposable in economics yet persistent in ecology, embodies the contradictions of our throw-away society. Through my practice, I seek to challenge anthropocentric views and open new ways of living with things. EVERYDAY OBJECTS AND PLASTIC: Mass-produced everyday objects symbolize our industrial, throw-away culture. I often use plastic household items as my main material. Their original “ends and means”—form and design—are tied to their intended function, yet I am drawn to reinterpreting them and observing how their meanings shift when seen from different perspectives. KINETIC SCULPTURES: BETWEEN CONTROL AND UNCONTROL: My kinetic sculptures are assembled from impromptu combinations of objects and motors, as if they were creatures with their own will. Although I construct them, their complex and unpredictable movements reveal a space between controllable and uncontrollable—where the boundary of subject and object becomes blurred. PLASTIC AS PERSISTENT RELIC: Plastic objects are short-lived and disposable from an economic perspective, yet ecologically they remain. Made from ancient petroleum, they never biodegrade. In the far future, anthropologists—human or otherwise—may examine plastic relics as evidence...

Artwork