Shuhei Fukuda’s practice focuses on phenomena that emerge from the intersection of nature, human agency, and material. Natural conditions such as temperature, humidity, air, and light intersect with the artist’s intention and the properties of materials, and this very interplay gives rise to a relational situation in which the work comes into being. In this context, the inherent qualities of the material are brought forth, and the work appears not as a fixed material form, but as a process that continues to transform over time.
Silver leaf, the primary material in Fukuda’s work, responds to environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, and sulfur in the air, undergoing irreversible discoloration. Rather than attempting to control or fix a property that has traditionally been regarded as deterioration, Fukuda embraces the material’s autonomous behavior and the traces of its transformation. The temporality acquired by the silver leaf through its interaction with the environment—gradually deepening in tone and eventually moving toward decay—resonates with the temporal condition of human life and renders otherwise invisible natural phenomena perceptible.
For Fukuda, making is not an act of intervening in nature, but a practice of experiencing, observing, and recording the processes through which nature and material generate and transform. The irreversible change that begins the moment human intervention occurs constitutes the essence of the work, evoking in the viewer a bodily awareness of time, environment, and the vitality of matter.
Thus, the work is understood not as a fixed, completed object, but as a process that manifests the continuity and transformation of phenomena. Mediated by the relationship between material and natural forces, it emerges as a situation in which time and environment are sensorially experienced, proposing a renewed point of contact between human beings and nature.
Featured products
