Konishi Aoi [Japan]

Born in Fukuoka, Japan, in 1998. Graduate student in the Department of Sculpture and Crafts of the Kyoto University of Arts .
Konishi regards sculpture as a form of material displacement that allows her to reflect on the world. Her works are rooted in the idea of a dialogue through living creatures pictograms, a primitive human invention. Based on her personal experience of tulpamancy, and on the etymology of the tibetan buddhist term ""tulpa"" (""to change one's appearance""), Konishi uses her own tulpa as a motif in her work. In reference to the culture of animal masquerade and the concept of living sculpture, she also creates works in which she becomes a sculpture herself.
She received the President's Special Prize, the Atsuhiko Shima Special Prize, and the Encouragement Prize at the Kyoto University of Arts Graduation Exhibition in 2021.