Capturing space and creating and recreating space is what I do in sculpture. It’s about breaking the ground and opening up a path that leads to somewhere unknown and far beyond. This path, that is the sculpture, is on one end connected to the viewer. Thus, it extends and expands the spatial properties of the body.
The material I use to make my work is steel. Steel gives me the freedom to expand in scale and determine dimensions with precision. The forms I make are not based on any mathematical principle, rather they are built by intuition as if drawing a line in a sketchbook. I make a lot of ‘sketches’ by making paperboard models. Once the dimensions are decided, I then make my work in steel.
My interest in capturing space dates back to the time I was more of a painter making landscape paintings directly from real life. I also have been influenced by the structure of rhythms in music as I grew up playing the violin, piano, and percussion such as timpani, as my parents both have been professionals in music. Structure of language is also something that has intrigued me since I spent my childhood living both in the United States and Japan. Whether it is the structure of music or language that I am influenced by, I create spaces in the language of sculpture, which is a non-verbal language that directly speaks to the body.
Rina Murao 2019.06.24