SAORI KANDA

ARTIST / Contemporary art performer

SAORI KANDA

Dance, Destruction, and Creation

I let my body move with the energy of that moment
I let my body dance and paint
And I express the primitive joy of human being
Transcending nationalities, races, sexes, and ages of those who I encounter
I share the joy and paint the light of joy

As the moon gently shines
I believe the light revives upon any darkness

SAORI KANDA

SAORI KANDA was Born in Yamaguchi Prefecture (Japan)
She grew up in Baghdad(Iraq) and in Dubai (UAE) in her childhood.
This experience gave her a great opportunity to see the beauty of the world as well as a strong sense of longing for Japan.
She keeps traveling around the globe, visiting new places, meeting new people, and those are the energy for expressing her passion.

” LIFE PAINT ” is her form of ART.
She uses her entire body to feel the waves of music and draw her unique piece of art on a large canvas as if she dances.
She breathes a life into the canvas. Her work grows and become filled with freewheeling spirits by experiencing the cycle of destruction and rebirth.
She, as a painter, becomes a part of her own work and her outstanding performance attracts offers from all over the world.

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Saori Kanda was born in Tokuyama, Yamaguchi Pref., Japan, and spent her childhood in Baghdad and Dubai, now works as a contemporary artist based in Tokyo.

Kanda has continued to express the emotions hidden in the primitive human hierarchy in the form of performance and painting through an approach that combines dance and painting, and uses the term “Odori Eshi” to describe her existence.

Her artistic performances, which involve dance, music, costumes, lighting, and film production, and which are performed in front of the audience, at first glance appear to be of the kind that can be perceived as theatrical and artistic media.

But what lies in the background, she says, is an inclination to incorporate into the painting itself the body of the painter, passion aroused by music and dance, and activeness, which can be said to be one of the approaches to the art history of action painting developed by Kazuo Shiraga (1924 -2008) and Jackson Pollock (1912 -1956), which focuses on the expression of activeness and unconscious images in painting.

”For me, the act of “Inori” is the very act of “dance” and I feel that it is an important entrance (ritual) to express unconsciously the connection to the universe, away from my existence and intention.”
As she says, she does not play a role of arbitrariness in the production of paintings, but maintains her position as a mediator who embodies the things hidden at the universal level.

Although she approaches the traditional trend in the history of abstract paintings, the reason why Kanda does not lose her own originality is that she introduces dance and music.

In the world of action painting, which consists of canvases, paints, paintbrushes and artists’ own bodies, Kanda brings new angles of dance and music.
Not only that, but also that, as a ritual in which all people, including participants, share a mystical experience about their art performance, she embraces her own activities from the very beginning of technology, such as VR and AR, with the intention of visualizing and sharing the special existence beyond the five senses that she feels when she gets on stage.

In our daily life, where remote means of communication such as portable devices have developed remarkably, music and dance can be said to be the commonplace everyday being able to access the contents anywhere, but Kanda mixes and updates these media-artistic elements with action painting, which is a traditional movement and a method of painting creation, and creates a new expression. This attitude can be said to be an act to present one of the missions and methods of modern art, that is to say, to make action painting, which is a movement that is “It’s over.”, breathe new life by modern methods and means, that is to say, to continue things that are not moving to lie in the history of art in the present and beyond.

(Text/Shinzo Okuoka)

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LIFE PAINT -Saori Kanda’s Creation

Saori Kanda calls her own creative work ‘LIFE PAINT’.
To draw life. To draw throughout her life. Or to draw staking her life.
You may take her words however you can.

To draw.
For her, it is not just to create artworks but it is to record her
encounters and her growth.
What you see in her work always is a festival of lines and colors that
breathes heavily holding enthusiasm within.
It is like a flower, like a body, or like a landscape of an unknown country.

Who is Saori Kanda that creates this?

Having spent her childhood in Baghdad and Dubai,
she says she always had a longing for Japan, a far country from where she was.
Certainly, in her work, it seems that influences from Arabic world and
elements of Japanese roots are inseparably interwoven in her depiction
of human body , detailed patterns, and the curves of her flowing
brushstrokes .

She does live with unbridled enthusiasm.
She draws, longs for encounters with people and places, travels,
talks, listens, gets worried, breaks, laughs, creates, sheds tears,
lives, communicates, and again, draws.
With all her strength and all her heart.

It does not matter if it is a live painting performance , a creation
of tableau, or a collaboration with other fields such as music,
fashion, and so on. She does what she does.
She jumps into the encounter throughout her body, communes with it,
and devotes herself to it. Then, she lets her brushes run.

The ‘heat’ that is boiling in all Saori Kanda’s work is the ‘heat’
liberated in a chemical reaction of the encounters with people,
things, and places throughout her life.

LIFE PAINT. To live out her life is to draw.

(text by Chiori Fujita / Curator at Tokyo National Museum,Translationed by Kenjiro Otani)

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ART PERFORMANCE
FUJIROCK FESTIVAL, O.Z.O.R.A. festival,Oregon global eclipse gathering,and RED ROCKS(U.S.A) w/SHPONGLE,Tour in India,HongKong,,Taiwan,Myammer,France,Switzerland,and U.S.A

SOLO EXHIBITON
Museum in Kazakhstan,Hongkong,Taiwan,and Tokyo.

Collaboration
Canon,TOYOTA,NISSAN,MASERATI,AlfaRomeo
TAITTINGER,Cartier,CHAUMET,CARL.F.BUCHERER,VIVIENNETAM,MDNASKIN,shuuemura,etc

Awards

  • 2019 Contemporary Art Fair [ Independent Tokyo ] Audience Award
  • 2016 CARL.F.BUCHERER 'Pathos Woman Award' Pathos Princess
  • 2013 A'DESIGN AWARD (Milan Italy)Graphics and VisualCommunication Design

Activity history

  • 2021
    Featured on TVCM of " Hamasaki gumi "Construction company
  • 2020
    Solo exhibition at Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi TOKYO / COMTESSE show
  • 2020
    Solo exhibition at Imperial hotel TOKYO COMTESSE boutique
  • 2020
    Collaboration with COMTESSE for new visuals and products
  • 2019
    Art performance at NYC/CRS
  • 2019
    Groupshow and Art performance at NYC/WhiteBox
  • 2019
    Installation of AR&VR art at TOJI/KYOTO Collaboration with tech team of TOPPAN
  • 2019
    Featured on French film " Variations Kawase " film by Yves Montmayeur
  • 2019
    Colloboration w/ W hotel Shanghai
  • 2019
    Colloboration w/ Xgames China
  • 2018
    ART performance & exhibition at TOKYO ILLUSION presented by Gallery tagboat/ Taiwan
  • 2018
    Group exhibition/BUREAK ZENYA /Shibuya Bunkamura Gallery 
  • 2017
    Solo exhibition/TOKYO/ASJTOKYO
  • 2017
    TAITTINGER / Tokyo National Museum / ART PERFORMANCE
  • 2017
    OKINAWA/world Heritage NAKAGUSUKU/ART PERFORMANCE
  • 2017
    ART PERFORMANCE / Oregon global eclipse gathering/session with SHPONGLE
  • 2017
    ART Dedication for OKAYAMA /KIBITSUHIKO shrine
  • 2017
    Organize for TSUKIYOI MATSURI in Yoron island
  • 2017
    Shingapore/ Ritz Carlton party/ART PERFORMANCE
  • 2016
    ART PERFORMANCE / Hangary O.Z.O.R.A festival /session with SHPONGLE
  • 2016
    Gifu/NAKATSUGAWA THE SOLAR BUDOKAN/ART PERFORMANCE
  • 2016
    Tokyo National Museum/Cartier launch party/ART PERFORMANCE
  • 2016
    Taiwan/openingceremony/ART PERFORMANCE
  • 2016
    TOKYO/ SMF/ART PERFORMANCE with VINI VICHI,SYSTEM7,Juno Reactor
  • 2016
    Hungary/ O.Z.O.R.A. festival/ART PERFORMANCE with Shpongle
  • 2016
    CARL.F.BUCHERER 'Pathos Woman Award' Pathos Princess
  • 2016
    INDIA/Dance Of SHIVA in Manali/ART PERFORMANCE
  • 2015
    Swiss/Bellinzona/JAPAN MATSURI /ART PERFORMANCE
  • 2015
    Tokyo/Aman Resort Hotel/Grand opening party/ART PERFORMANCE
  • 2015
    Gunma/NAKANOJYO ART BIENNALE
  • 2014
    Solo exhibition /Tokyo/Non-Finito/
  • 2014
    Kyoto/CHAUMET private party/ART PERFORMANCE
  • 2014
    U.S.A//REDROCKS/Shpongle concert /ART PERFORMANCE
  • 2014
    France&Swiss/LIFE PAINT Tour/ART PERFORMANCE
  • 2014
    Solo exhibition /Taiwan/Sincewell Gallery
  • 2014
    Tokyo/Maserati party/ART PERFORMANCE
  • 2014
    Solo exhibition /Tokyo/SeibuShibuya gallery
  • 2013
    Dragon Ash [ Lily ] MV/ART PERFORMANCE
  • 2013
    FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL'13/ART PERFORMANCE with Polar Chalors
  • 2013
    Solo exhibition /Kazakhstan/Almaty /A. KASTEYEV STATE MUSEUM OF ARTS
  • 2013
    NISSAN CALENDER/ ART WORK
  • 2012
    Canon EOS 5D Mark III / ART WORK
  • 2011
    Solo exhibition /HongKong/ RED SQUARE GALLERY
  • 2010
    VIVIENNE TAM /ART WORK
  • 2010
    Alfa Romeo[MiTo]CM/ ART WORK
  • 2010
    ART SETOUCHI /ART PERFORMANCE
  • 2009
    Art performance for TOYOTA Lexus RX exhibition with Togi Hideki
  • 2009
    Solo exhibition/Tokyo/SHIBUYA SEIBU gallery
  • 2009
    Solo exhibition/Tokyo/SHINSEIDO gallery
  • 2005
    Tokyo/ Shuuemura /ART PERFORMANCE
  • 2005
    N.Y./D&A/ART PERFORMANCE
  • 2005
    Solo exhibition/Tokyo/Beams B-gallery
  • 2003
    Album ARTWORK for
    Asuca Hayashi(TOSHIBA EMI)
  • 2000
    Graduate from Musashino Art University/Visual communication design