The writer of this article, editor-in-chief of SHIFT, participated as one of the judges this year as well. The following are artists who received the SHIFT Award and caught my attention.

Ball Piyaluk

This year, the Thai artist, Ball Piyaluk, was selected for the SHIFT Award. In 2021, the collection from the “Loved and Gone” series was exhibited in memory of her death due to cancer. They were created while she was facing her own mind and body during the two years when she fought against cancer. She continued to create art to heal her mind and body while living with illness. This work is full of the vitality of a person who strongly desires to connect with the world and people and to create art, no matter how difficult it may be.

Shinkogeisha

Here is a good example of creating new value by combining items around us which uses stones with 3D printers technology for this case. In the flow of traditional Japanese crafts, new handicrafts that utilize computers and technology are called “Shinkougei”. The work exhibited this time by Shinkogeisha is a practical object that blends into everyday life by scanning stones in 3D and then combining custom shaped parts that fit perfectly with the stone. The new movement to revive traditional craft through fab culture, which uses digital fabrication, could attract more attention in the future.

Senoo

These lines, that look like they are drawn with a brush, are created with a combination of digitally scanned photographs being reconstructed into new artworks. In the process of this reconstruction, the author, Senoo, proposes new values by finding out what is important to him from the noise surrounding everyday life and repairing them into a new shape. All of the works shown this time had a sense of color and composition, but the simple single flower artwork was particularly impressive.