The Big Sleeper

Sota Sakuma is a Japanese-born painter, draftsman, and puppeteer who has been living in Prague since 2000. His fantastical work is full of wondrous characters on the border between the world of animals, nature spirits, and fairy-tale figures. They often appear as miniature creatures literally swarming the landscape or domestic spaces, while at other times we observe them more closely, in fine details depicting their cute yet slightly eerie features.

Sakuma is inspired in his work by his childhood in Japan, associated with an animistic view of the world, in which everything in nature is permeated by deities and forces with their own consciousness. At the same time, while still studying in Japan, he was captivated by an exhibition of Czech puppets, which led him all the way to Prague. He has also been greatly influenced by the work of Jiří Trnka and Jan Švankmajer. Through Sakuma's paintings, we sometimes travel to typically Japanese interiors, and at other times to strange and wondrous regions, waters, forests, and deserts that could be located anywhere in the world. What they all have in common is the ability to tell stories and to see far beyond everyday reality - to become aware of the dance of invisible forces around us, whether we are in the comfort of our home or in an endless landscape.

Sota Sakuma (*1977) comes from Aichi, Japan. He studied textile design at the University of Tokyo. After a chance encounter with a Czech puppet in a Tokyo gallery, he decided to travel to Prague, where he subsequently studied alternative and puppet theater scenography at DAMU. He is represented by the Prague-based Bold Gallery, which also presented his first solo exhibition in the Czech Republic. He enriched the publication *Na obloze obláček* by Pavlína Šimonová with his full-page illustrations. Sota's puppets are represented in museum collections and in many private collections around the world. The Japanese public can also admire them at the Tokyo gallery Puppet House, which has also hosted a solo exhibition of Sakuma's work.

Texts: Karina Kottová