Recycling creator Toru Saito uses plastic and other waste materials that have washed ashore in the ocean to create artwork for lamps. He does not see plastic waste, which is considered a negative product, only in a negative aspect.
He says, “Plastic that was made by human beings, used and discarded, then polished by the power of nature, faded and degraded, and returned to human hands. When you imagine how and where it came to be, garbage is no longer garbage, but is seen as a treasure.
Perhaps it is precisely because garbage is picked up with a positive attitude that it can be sublimated into a charming work of art. What is the form of recycling and recycling-oriented art projects that only Toru Saito can realize?
A genuine recycler with a love of picking up trash
Saito, who is developing his art activities as “Pimlico Arts Japan” under the theme of recycling and upcycling, began creating artworks in earnest four or five years ago. Until then, his love of working with his hands had led him to become a chef and bag designer, following his heart. The ocean, on the other hand, has always been close to him and one of the axes of his life, as he went camping with his family when he was a child, surfed in his 20s, and still lives in Hayama today. He had always been interested in environmental issues and recycling, but at the time he did not connect that with ocean plastic.
Even as a child, he loved scavenging through trash and picking up things. When he picked up a rusty bolt or a pencil that had been sharpened to a super-small size that no one would look at, he would giggle at how good it looked and imagine the story behind it. Even now, as an adult, he says his heart still dances when he sees a pile of trash, which is pretty hardcore. When he was a chef, he used vegetable peels and even meat and fish bones for soup stock, and he never threw them away. When he was making bags, he tried to keep the parts and structure as simple as possible, and designed them in a square shape so that there would be no waste or discarded parts. The spirit of “no waste,” “no throw-away,” and “mottainai” has always existed as the roots of my work.
Upcycling the unlikable into the adorable
A major turning point in the connection between the familiarity of the sea and the spirit of mottainai was Jurgen Lehl’s 2015 exhibition “Whose Place Is This?”(Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo), Jurgen Lehl, who was living on Ishigaki Island, exhibited a fantastic installation work of beautifully strung lights using them as a message to the global environment to warn against the critical reality that the island’s beaches are being polluted by a massive amount of garbage. When Saito saw it, he said, “It had a strong impact. It made me realize the form of recycling that I had vaguely wanted to do.
Since then, he has been going to the seaside to pick up trash and started making lamps out of marine plastic while making bags. Furthermore, the Corona pandemic a few years later gave him the impetus to start in earnest as a recycler as a result. He said, “Economically and circumstantially, bag making became more difficult as a business, and I gradually became less and less interested in doing it. Rather, making artwork seemed more interesting and seemed to have more future and potential, so I decided to express myself through artwork.”
The first piece he made in imitation of Jurgen Lehl's work ©PAJ
Based on the art project “Pimlico Arts JAPAN” that he presides over, Saito presents his works in various contents including physical, digital, and media. The name “Pimlico Arts” comes from the name of the squat where Ali, an Egyptian who was the first person he communicated with during his working holiday in London around 2009, was living. His encounter with Ali greatly influenced his later idea of recycling. The idea of recycling human resources by sharing the skills of people who have too much time on their hands and exchanging skills, rather than bartering, was interesting. I actually provided places and connected people, and I called myself a recycler, but I took the liberty of taking over that title as well.”
In London, he was inspired to do something on the theme of recycling, and after returning to Japan, he was shocked by Jurgen Lehl’s exhibition, and his determination was solidified by the Corona Pandemic. This is how he started in earnest as recycler Toru Saito.
The photo was taken during his time in London.
Exploring the affinity between waste plastic and digital
However, simply making lights and objects out of plastic and driftwood found in the ocean is nothing more than imitation. How did he find originality in this?
“I also liked the geeky world of electrical parts piled up in the Akihabara Electric Town that I passed by when I was making the bags, so I came up with the idea of combining it with digital art by linking it with a computer, since I had some prior knowledge of fiddling with electrical wiring, which I learned from Youtube. When I actually connected them, they worked really well together.”
Saito believes that the reason for the compatibility is that the era in which plastic was popularized and the era in which digital art was created were close to each other, about 10 years apart, but anime, games, and synthetic fiber clothing were created and popularized at about the same time. This is where the affinity between plastic and digital lies.
“Plastic was born in the midst of Japan’s rapid economic growth, and the world became colorful at once. Baskets, tubs, and other household items that had previously been made of metal or wood were being replaced by plastic. Our generation didn’t experience the transitional period, so we don’t feel it, but if you talk to people who lived through that time, they would probably be shocked to see the changes.”
He has built his own unique expression by creating works that delve into the shifting sense of the times and the affinity between plastic and digital. He has been experimenting with one video software and 3D software after another, learning on his own, and exploring by watching and learning.
A message in the light of peace and tranquility created by a world divided into two layers and plastic
His new work “memoryPACK: Memory and Record Devices,” which is displayed in his atelier, is another lighting artwork that attempts to fuse plastic and digital. Using scrap materials such as plastic bottle caps, LAN cables, and acrylic panels that were no longer needed after the pandemic ended, the work was inspired by the social divisions that came to light in the wake of the pandemic and the contrast between the surging digital world and reality, a true geek’s show of skill.
The LAN cables symbolize the network of the world and the loss of physical connection. The pale light created by the sequence of caps is the PAX (Latin for peace, tranquility) of a new era. It contains Saito’s story: “We must not forget that the world is always living in the midst of a turbulent history, while at the same time remembering that the corona frightened and frightened us and gave us the opportunity to reassess ourselves.”
「memoryPACK」
Delivering to the heart with plastic, the mission of Pimlico Arts JAPAN
Just as he was inspired by the work of Jurgen Lehl, he uses waste plastic, the root of all environmental ills, as a material to stimulate and inspire people by upcycling it into something cute and fun to experience. As part of his activities, he actively conducts workshops with children. He also expresses his gratitude to his father, who passed away a few months ago, for the things he was unable to tell him before his death.
He says, “My DIY approach to making things was greatly influenced by my father, and I have good memories of the times we spent together experiencing and making things. We were never close after I grew up, but what I am doing now is inherited from my father, who worked as a welder and drew comic books as a hobby, and I also inherited the attitude of thinking about environmental issues from my parents.That is why the workshop is designed to strengthen the bond between parents and children through making things, and also to show them that plastic made by humans goes around and ends up in the ocean, and that even a single plastic bottle cap has a story to tell. Plastic is a hated substance, but I don’t want people to just end up hating it. On the contrary, I hope that by making people feel that it is a problem, it will encourage them to think about something different and new,” says Saito.
No matter how loudly scientists and experts may voice their sense of crisis, numbers alone cannot convey the message. The emotions that accompany the experience of actually seeing, touching, making, and experiencing interesting, fun, cute, and beautiful things are the driving force that moves people’s hearts. Pimlico Arts JAPAN’s mission is to pass on to future generations the ability to think about solutions for the future through interaction and participatory art events, and to pass on a bountiful earth to future generations.
Toru Saito’s steady activities have just begun!
From left「Find Collect Light」、「Totem」、「Architecture」、「SOMETIMES UKRAINE」
©PAJ
Sound system speaker 1&2 ©PAJ
Pimlico Arts JAPAN / artist
Toru Saito
Creator and recycler born in 1979 in Kanagawa, living in Hayama. After graduating from a computer graphics school, he studied in Australia and England. After returning to Japan, he was involved in the launch of chef Yoshiko Takahashi’s food atelier S/S/A/W and learned the joy and wonder of craftsmanship. After retiring, he started his original bag brand “KHISONOIO”. 2015, he participated in Jurgen Lehl’s exhibition at the “Whose place is this? In 2020, he will start producing and presenting his art works as “Pimlico Arts Japan”.
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writer
Masumi Sasaki
After working for Ryuko Tsushin, she was a founding member of Numero TOKYO, where she was in charge of fashion features and web design. As an editor and creative director, she edits, produces, and directs brand catalogs, websites, and online stores. With a focus on fashion, she also covers art and lifestyle. She also runs a vegan body care cosmetics brand “TAO GARDEN (@taogarden_japan)” with a god-hand therapist at her favorite treatment salon. A late bloomer of K-dramas.
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