Sato Sugamoto's Fiber Sculptures Explore Social Media and Female Identity Through Tangled Forms

Sato Sugamoto creates intricate fiber sculptures that visualize the invisible architectures of human thought and digital information flows. Her series Glimpse (2025) uses colorful fibers, discarded electrical cables, rubber tubes, elastic cord, foam, and cloth to examine the physiological and psychological effects of social media. The entangled forms evoke frayed nerve sheaths and electrical wiring, mimicking the adrenaline-driven engagement of digital consumption while resisting rapid viewing through labor-intensive craftsmanship. Another series, Balance (2025), explores the negotiation between women's autonomy and societal expectations through materials historically associated with domestic labor like yarn, cloth, and industrial metals including copper, aluminum, iron, and brass. Sugamoto's practice is rooted in her experience navigating Japan's cultural expectations, reflecting tensions between conformity and individual autonomy. Her handwoven works position slowness as resistance against fleeting digital interactions, with compositions that oscillate between fragility and endurance. The sculptures materialize intangible forces, offering tactile experiences of how internal resilience forms through sustained negotiation with external pressures. Sugamoto's website and Instagram presence highlight her awareness of the paradox in circulating materially complex works as instantly consumable online images.