KASE T. Saiko

Coming from background in economics and finance, she received her Master of Fine Arts from School of The Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) with a Full Scholarship in 2011. She has since won fellowships and awards, such as the MacDowell Colony Fellowship (2013), Beppu Art Award (2012), Vermont Studio Center Fellowship (2012), John W. Kurtich Foundation Scholarship (2011) and others. Her recent exhibitions include Life-time Project (Oita, Japan, October 2012), Rapid Pulse (Chicago, USA, June 2012), Territorial Testimonial (New York, USA, May 2012), The Next Generation (Evanston, USA, March 2012).

All human beings have to deal with the reality of a finite existence, the only certainty in life. In making works about my own life experience, I have been exploring the contact between life and death. Through performative acts, I explore the life cycle, recurring patterns and other aspects related to time, using organic materials such as soil, hair, hand-made woolen felt, sprouting seeds and my own body. I continue to provide audiences with opportunities to contemplate our most basic nature of life - mortality: something we often forget or avoid in our everyday lives.