Satomi Kawai
Satomi Kawai was born and grew up in Japan, where a women’s virtue has been modesty, obedience, and harmonizing with her family and society. When she moved to the US, she found new opportunities to examine and explore the qualities of womanhood, including physical, mental, emotional, and psychological layers as well as muscular appearances. The change in the external environment and time added flexibility to her conceptualization of femininity. Her experiences sparked curiosity: did others have similar transformations after moving to the US? Satomi is exploring not only her personal perception but also other women’s perception as a woman. She creates wearable objects, drawings and printings, and performances. She has exhibited her artwork nationally (Cedar Rapids, Chicago, New York) and internationally (Netherland, Switzerland, Germany.)
University of Iowa, MFA Jewelry and MetalArts 2006
Instagram: satominart
Website: satomikawai.com
Artist Statement
Satomi’s responses to seven women’s interview clip consist of two parts.
The first part is the 7 pieces of body adornments (brooches and necklace forms) from the “Rooted” series. Rooted is a metaphor for their life: they were born in their mother country, have moved to a new environment, have adjusted themselves, and have been developing each in their way. She has seen the way that they’ve become better people and contribute to society.
The second part is in the form of a short performance, titled “For a Better Place,” and performed by “DS MOVES,” a performance unit with Douglas Baker. Satomi’s voice was recorded with her word choices from 7 interviewees and her thoughts on their life experiences. Then Douglas manipulated the recorded audio with his own creativity.
In this collaborative performance, Satomi and Douglas wear their original garments: Satomi is a representation of the 7 women and Douglas is a messenger to send the 7 women’s voices to the society.
