The Portfolio of Sculptor and Designer Shoko César
Kanyamashokoro (Shoko) César is a sculptor and designer. In his sculpture, Shoko takes a constructive, gestural approach, creating forms that suggest figuration and pose through large, confident movements and and cuts made through the clay.
I enjoy the way that Shoko leaves his figures partially unfinished, combining a capable expression of form with an apparent appreciation for the raw textures and imperfections of natural clay. The sculptures are set but never painted, always leaving the viewer to contemplate the visual tension between the emerging figure, and the sculptural object’s continued existence as a piece of clay.
A recent work of Shoko’s is modelled after Auguste Rodin’s sculpture of the French novelist Balzac. The original work is famous for its emphasis on capturing a persona more than a physical likeness: a notion that seems perfectly in line with Shoko’s method of working.
