Aoyama Satoru

Satoru Aoyama (b. 1973, Tokyo, Japan) graduated with a BA in textiles from Goldsmiths College, University of London in 1998, and an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2001. Aoyama creates works that explore issues of labour and capitalism in contemporary society, using an old Singer industrial sewing machine. He believes that ‘only by continuing to create, can art be a mirror of the times.’ Over the past few years, Aoyama has used embroidery to continuously engage with social issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic, wars and conflicts around the world, and the divisions they have caused, blending critique with humour in his work. In works that Aoyama describes as ‘small monuments to disappearing things’—embroidered reproductions of magazines, bills, and flyers—the artist calls into question contemporary society, where all information and objects are consumed ‘momentarily’ and where society itself undergoes rapid transformation.