“I would categorize my practice as ‘trans art’, art that tries to go beyond art and expand into life itself, a state of being. My practice proposes, through art, how seeing physical, non-verbal experiences transform our beliefs about the world, leading to change as an echo of it.”

Restraint, captivity, capturing reality, time and aggression become the Japanese born artist, Hanae Utamura’s mortives towards her works. For instance, the idea of opposing forces from nature/ landscape, such as overpowering motion of wind and repetitive inconsistency of nature. Utamura’s work, ‘casting the wave’, is a performance piece, documenting artist herself persistently pouring plaster into the ocean to cast and the force of wind and wave prohibit Utamura’s pure attempts. This work exemplifies a notion of restictions and interference, which palpably exists regardless how hard one tries to prevent. Utamura’s works convey the idea of empathy and its responsiveness.

Utamura’s performance pieces often takes place in ‘edge territorial’ locations. For example, cliff’s edge, deep snow and desert are few of the enticing locations. Utamura pushes the boundaries of the ‘impossible’ and ‘possible’ with pioneering human ability.

Utamura received her B.A from Goldsmiths College and M.A from Chelsea College of Art and Design. She received Florence trust award and has completed a residency in Changdong National Arts studio, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul. Korea. Utamura has exhibited a solo show at WW gallery patio projects in London and also has exhibited in group shows, including London Art Fair, Florence Trust (London) and home base festival (Berlin).