Yoshihiro Suda

Yoshihiro Suda is based in Tokyo. He creates hyper-realistic flowers and weeds from wood. He sets himself the task of making each new work more lifelike than the last. Painstakingly carving and painting each piece, using traditional Japanese tools, he may take many days to complete a single petal or leaf.

Suda only starts to make his works once he has considered the space they will be shown in. He chooses native plants commonly found in the city where his work will be exhibited. He situates his pieces in surprising places, growing unexpectedly out of pristine gallery walls and pushing up out of forgotten corners. His interventions reveal the beauty in the simple and apparently unconsidered.

'Simply, I want to know how detailed I can make it, how real I can make it. This is an old-fashioned way of thinking, to make something so naturalistic that it looks like the original. It is not the fashion now, to observe something and make it very skilfully, the idea itself is very deep. To make this kind of copy, the technique is very important. There are no goals as such, just that I can make it better next time.'

What appeals to me about Suda's work is the way in which it is placed within the gallery space, with a light hand a small gesture, apart from the rest of the group exhibitions.

By placing the work in this way Suda invites the viewer to find it, stumble across it, the finind of the work almost becomes as important as the work itself, something which appeals to me within my own practice.