Natsuko Uchino

Squid Currency, 2021 is a series of non-calibrated double-sided bronze coins made using a casting technique dating back to Neolithic times. The additive layers are encoded with the growing time of the cuttlebones (squid bones) which were carved by hand and then used as a mould.

Money is a surrogate for value and it serves as a unit to measure exchange within a community that accepts transactions by sharing it. The introduction of money does not always mean that everything in the world is commensurate, nor does currency need to be based in accumulation, competition nor capitalism. A ba ...

The earth composing these artworks comes from a quarry in Vallabrix, located near the artist’s home, where the exploitation of this land is geared towards sand mining; the displaced soil considered waste and often re-buried. The earth taken directly from the quarry is enriched with various mineral and plant elements from the region that are simultaneously pictorial and architectural. Adobe (torchi) is particular because of its porosity, it is a material that breaths and helps regulate hydrometry. Likewise, it’s inertia harmonises its temperature.

« Those paintings in torchi, comes from Natsut ...

Natsuko Uchino’s work takes the form of installations, films, and performances combining the multiple materialities of sculpture, functional objects, and living matter. Her interdisciplinary practice is defined by experiences in agriculture and crafts, relates art to ecology, food, and conviviality through the use of ceramics. Living between Paris and the South of France she was born in Japan in 1983 and graduated from Cooper Union, New York in 2007 and the Center for Contemporary Art Kitakyushu research program in Japan in 2012.

She has held solo exhibitions at Galerie Allen, Pari ...