ARTIST

Mai Suzki is an artist exploring “living art” through sculpture for the body, spatial installation, craft, and digital fabrication. Her practice examines how identity and subjectivity are constructed, concealed, and performed under the influence of external values and social systems. At the core of her work lies a deep fear of losing oneself. Through the life and philosophy of a craftsman she encountered, she became deeply influenced by the Japanese aesthetic concept of iki — which she interprets as “the attitude of enjoying life in one’s own way, regardless of circumstance.” That craftsman was also the person who developed fully spherical forms of Kumiko, a traditional Japanese woodworking technique traditionally limited to flat wooden patterns and architectural surfaces. After learning Kumiko techniques from him, she later began integrating traditional craftsmanship with digital fabrication, developing her own methods that expand Kumiko into bodily and spatial dimensions. Her work takes form as sculptural wearable objects and spatial installations. Her practice continuously questions what it means to remain truly alive without losing oneself.