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Spirits in the material world

Catching up with sculptor Sayaka Ganz

By Rebecca Stockert

Fort Wayne Reader

2018-05-19

A short drive down Griffin Street and through the doors of Tekventure will bring the curious onlooker to the temporary workshop of artist Sayaka Ganz. Ganz is probably most well known for her large, sculptural installations using reclaimed plastic. At her studio in Tekventure, she is currently working on constructing a large installation commissioned for a spa in Incheon, South Korea.

The spa that Ganz’s sculpture is headed for is part of a much larger complex near Incheon
International Airport: Paradise City. The project is being developed jointly between Paradise City and the Sega Sammy Holdings corporation, the company that brought the world Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991. The company learned about Ganz’s work from and installation at the Exploration Tower in Port Canaveral, Florida.

Thematically similar to the installation at Port Canaveral, the piece for Paradise City is a seascape, with Ganz’s signature recycled plastic objects transforming into a blue whale, turtles, fish, and waves. She explains: “Since this is a spa, I wanted it to be very tranquil, very happy, and a peaceful kind of scene. That’s why I chose the whale and the turtles.”

Many of Ganz’s artworks share the theme of nature scenes or animals, with seascapes becoming a progressively more regular subject matter. She notes that she is drawn to water, but doesn’t necessarily prefer it to other scenes with animals, with animals being an important part of her work.

“It's easy for people to relate to them because they are so obviously alive, they share some of our emotional qualities,” Ganz explains. They are kind of like a bridge for us, between the human realm and nature; sometimes it is helpful to have that. It is easy for me to imagine being an animal, for example. It takes more to imagine being a tree or a rock.”

Because she was born in Japan, Ganz was raised with Shinto beliefs, the indigenous religion of the country. Ganz explains that Shinto is a type of shamanism, in which there is a spirit in everything: “I don’t know if it’s with the animals, but with the materials, for sure, it’s very spiritual for me. I try to relate to them. They become my collaborators, my friends, and my teachers, too. I learned a lot from the plastics themselves.” In turn, plastics are created from petroleum, which is a fossil fuel, and which was once an ancient, living thing.

The plastics she works with have taught her more about caring for the environment as well. “The cheapness of plastics makes us think it is inconsequential,” Ganz points out. However, as our oceans begin to fill with tens of thousands of tons of plastic (Google ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’), we find the far-reaching consequences of the consumption of plastic to be anything but inconsequential.

Because of the large size of the installation for Paradise City, Ganz has taken up temporary residence at Tekventure, now located in the old River City Complex at 1550 Griffin Street. The building is situated in a nook of the Maumee river, just across the tracks from Summit City Brewerks. Tekventure has 13,000 square feet of space open to makers of all kinds. Membership rates start at $35 a month for artists and the public to use many different kinds of maker equipment.

Currently, the construction of the Paradise City sculpture installation is Ganz’s main focus. However, she also has a traveling exhibition crisscrossing the United States called Reclaimed Creations. The show opens next at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture in Spokane, WA, on June 2, 2018.. After, it travels to at least four other states through 2019. The body of work displays numerous animal sculptures made of reclaimed plastic by Ganz since 2015.

To learn more about Ganz’s work, check out her website at sayakaganz.com. She is also in need of blue sleds for the Paradise City sculpture, so check your basements and garages!