Kairi Tokoro
Kairi Tokoro is a Japanese artist based in London. His practice explores sound, sculpture, and performance. His work focuses on the interdependence of objects and human life—how human interaction with materials alters their shape, color, and function, and in turn, how these changes affect us.
The material itself accumulates layers of time, forming as it interacts with its surroundings, creating an inherent necessity within fortuity. His creative process involves engaging with the material as if he were part of its environment, allowing it to dictate its own transformation. Having a dialogue with the material is akin to aligning the body’s movement with sound—to dance. Rhythm and groove are innate to us; we sway to sound to feel natural, to establish order between ourselves and our environment. Waves of sound enter the body, seeking synchronicity with movement and form.
His process dances with the sculpture, responding to its potential form. He manipulates the material to discover its connection to sound—the sound of the body. The final form is a culmination of bodily rhythm, the material’s history, its connotations, and the symbiotic relationship between them.
Tokoro’s work is inspired by the material beyond its functionality. Objects are born to be used, to exist within human environments. However, once an object is forgotten, discarded, and deemed useless, it transitions into a space of its own. No longer a human-purposed object or a naturally occurring material, it becomes something with an independent function—outside human understanding. It returns to its material identity before man.
This transition—from functional object to autonomous material—is the moment of overcoming utility. It becomes a being, existing regardless of conscious acknowledgment.
Tokoro’s pursuit of material identity allows him to understand and shape forms that resonate with the sound of their existence—the dance of material as it aligns with our lives.