Our presentation will examine the work of Nanami Saito and Nerhol from two perspectives: the causality between human activity and nature, and the time and history that interpose between the same. These artists’ practices share a common focus on subjects imperceptible to the senses. Moreover, they leverage their respective material approaches as a means of perceiving the formless. In doing so, they imbue their work with the potential to expand our conceptions of time and space, and prompt us to consider the worlds that exist beyond our human conceits.

Nanami Saito (b.1996) presents ceramic work developed around the mythologies that arise at the boundary between the human and natural worlds. Her practice questions whether there are any completely natural places left in this day and age, and reflects doubts about the distance and relationship between the natural and the artificial.

Nerhol is an artist duo created in 2007 and composed of Yoshihisa Tanaka and Ryuta Iida. Since 2011, they have continued to develop their unique oeuvre through a distinct method of carving into stacks of over 200 different photographs they have taken of portraits, the result of which are images that appear to distort even the very time axis of the subjects themselves.