Ryota Sakurai | Fuwafuwa Friend Artworks

Profile

Ryota Sakurai was born in 1987 in Kumano, Mie, Japan.

He began taking photographs in 2013 and held his first photography exhibition in 2024.
He continues his artistic practice while working full-time as a software engineer.

Artist Statement

Interval

There is an interval before we understand the scene in front of us.

I stay with that interval before meaning takes form.

Daily life is shaped by judgment, optimization, and immediate answers.

I arrange the conditions for remaining in that interval within everyday life.

Exhibitions

2024 Setting Us Free -A COLLECTION OF FINE MOMENTS as of September, 2024- (L’ECHOPPE Aoyama, Tokyo)

Details

RYOTA SAKURAI

櫻井涼太

Projects

Between Here and There — an interval before meaning takes form
(2026-)

"Between Here and There" is an attempt to establish, within everyday life, the conditions in which an "Interval" can arise—the time before the meaning of the scene in front of us takes form.

I photograph scenes whose interpretation does not settle too quickly at first glance.

The conditions are arranged so that seeing does not immediately resolve into understanding or judgment.

I treat not only the photographs, but also the environments in which they are seen, as part of the structure of the work.

Framed Works

Framed Works are a form for placing within physical space the conditions in which an "Interval" can arise.

The horizontal format lets the gaze move laterally and sustains the time before meaning takes form.

Installed on a wall, the works hold those conditions within everyday space.

Unique Contours #1

Unique Contours #2

Unique Contours #2
A constructed path tracing a curve across the mountain surface.

Available online

Interval / 空白

iOS Widget Application

The app Interval places the conditions for an "Interval" to arise within the smartphone screen—something encountered in everyday life.

Visual information displayed on a screen is, in many cases, immediately tied to understanding, judgment, and the next action.

In this app’s widget, a time in which the gaze lingers repeatedly arises within that flow.

🌐 App Store - Apple

Interval

Visual Studio Code Extension

The Visual Studio Code extension Interval places the conditions for an "Interval" to arise within the environment of writing code.

In development environments, actions are quickly tied to judgment, revision, and the next operation.

Rather than stopping that flow, this extension leaves room just before it for the gaze to linger.

🌐 Interval - Visual Studio Marketplace

No, it is not. While "negative space" or ma refers to compositional elements within an image, "Interval" refers to the state in which perception has not yet consolidated into meaning.

Note: The Japanese term ma describes a spatial or temporal interval within composition. Although both involve the presence of a pause, "Interval" concerns the stage of perception before meaning stabilizes, rather than a structural feature of the image itself.
Yes, it is.

I do not suggest specific emotions or meanings; rather, I construct the conditions under which “Interval” can emerge.
It has aspects of both time and psychology.

It refers to the experience that takes place before perception stabilizes into meaning when we encounter a scene.
When an expression is understood immediately, interpretation closes too quickly.

I prioritize sustaining the state before a conclusion settles.
The subjects are real scenes, but reproduction or description is not the objective.

It concerns the stage before perception settles into a meaningful image.

While it shares common ground with photographic realism, it focuses on the moment where reality and perception intersect.
Expressing the inner self is not the purpose.

However, individual memories or experiences may be evoked during viewing.

These do not result from conveying the artist’s interiority, but arise from perceptual processes themselves.

I focus on sustaining the state before these processes consolidate into meaning.
It does not aim for healing or spirituality.

Nor does it treat scenes as symbols or metaphors.

The act of seeing before interpretation begins is what I call "Interval".

When we see something, there is a moment before we decide, "This is ___."

For example, when you see a tree, you might think, "It’s a tree," and walk past it.
But just before that, there is a moment before it has a name.

I call that moment "Interval".
We quickly give names to what we see.

But before we do, there are still many possible ways to see it.

I want to live in a way that appreciates that time.
It has aspects of both time and psychology.

It refers to the experience that takes place before perception stabilizes into meaning when we encounter a scene.
They are not made to express the artist’s feelings.

But sometimes, when you look at them, your own memories may surface.

That is not because the artist is imposing feelings, but because seeing itself has that power.
When something is understood immediately, it ends immediately.

I think it is important that there is a moment to pause.

When that moment is there,
I feel that I can return to simply looking.

I believe that this interval can arise not only in dedicated settings for viewing art, but also within the environments we encounter in everyday life.

In places such as smartphone screens and work environments, where understanding and judgment are immediately required, the time before meaning takes form can easily be passed over.
This project attempts to establish conditions in such environments where that time is more likely to arise.
This project takes multiple forms in order to establish conditions in different environments where an interval can arise.

Framed works place those conditions in physical space, the widget app places them on a screen encountered in daily life, and the Visual Studio Code extension places them in a work environment where judgment and optimization tend to proceed quickly.
For that reason, each of them is positioned as one of the forms that make up this project.
The framed works are one of the central forms in this project for establishing conditions in physical space where an interval can arise.

Whereas the widget and the extension place those conditions within everyday screens and work environments, the framed works, as images placed on a wall, hold in space a time before meaning immediately settles.
The photographs delivered through the app and extension are not meant to remain as a fixed list.
They change from time to time, and some photographs that were previously shown may no longer appear.
In the app, past sessions may remain as records, but this is not meant to make delivered photographs available to revisit at any time.
In this project, what matters is the interval before meaning takes form.

Projects

Between Here and There — an interval before meaning takes form (2026-)

Framed Works

Unique Contours #1

Unique Contours #2

Unique Contours #2 A constructed path tracing a curve across the mountain surface.

Interval / 空白

iOS Widget Application

Interval

Visual Studio Code Extension

Between Here and There — an interval before meaning takes form
(2026-)

Unique Contours #2
A constructed path tracing a curve across the mountain surface.