How to Carve a Sculpture


2018-2023 (ongoing)
Wood, Sound, HD video, inkjet print
Dimensions variable
Production support: Craft Science Museum Exedra, Hamura Zoo, Iida City Zoo, lzu Shaboten Zoo, Nasu Animal Kingdom, Sendai Umino-mori Aquarium, The Museum on the Street, Ueno Kigata Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Maho Kubota Gallery, Miyaji Masayuki, Nonaka Koichi, Osagawa Yuji, Takeno Yumi, Takeuchi Hitoshi
Recording cooperated by Izu Shaboten Zoo
Sound Design by Yutaka Ito (Ito Ongakusya)


Beavers chew on trees, sharpening their constantly-growing teeth. After a tree is felled, a tree becomes building material for the beaver’s dams or for a lodge to live in. The marks left on the tree stump are a side-product of this activity, and they remind me of sculptures carved by human artists such as Constantin Brâncuşi and Enku Buddha.

Are these sculpture? If we recognize these as sculpture, who would be the "artist" of these wooden sculptures?
Their shapes are also a result of the specific types of wood. Beavers chew around hard knots in the wood, and we could say that the wood has provided its own set of instructions for those bevers to follow.
I commissioned a sculptor to carve human-scale models (three times the size of the original) of the beaver’s work in wood. A human replicates what a beaver has created. New interpretations were here. Furthermore, by producing copy by automatic cutting machine (CNC), I am attempting to shift the subject’s layers of those.


  • How to Carve a SculptureA beaver (Taiyo, b.2014), Production Assistance: Nasu Animal Kingdom
  • How to Carve a SculptureProduction Assistance: Nasu Animal Kingdom
  • How to Carve a SculptureA wood sculpture bitten by the Beaver (Genie, b.2015), Photo: Naomi Ito, Production Assistance: Izu Shaboten Zoo
  • How to Carve a SculptureBy Yuzu(b.2011), By Komeko(b.2006), Production Assistance: Hamura Zoo, Iida City Zoo
  • How to Carve a SculpturePhoto: Kuniya Oyamada
  • How to Carve a SculpturePhoto: Kuniya Oyamada
  • How to Carve a SculpturePhoto: Kuniya Oyamada
  • How to Carve a SculpturePhoto: Kuniya Oyamada
  • How to Carve a SculpturePhoto: Kuniya Oyamada
  • How to Carve a SculpturePhoto: Kuniya Oyamada
  • How to Carve a SculpturePhoto: Kuniya Oyamada


  • Installation view of Solo Exhibition “How to Carve a Sculpture”竹野優美のスタジオ

  • How to Carve a SculpturePhoto: Keizo_Kioku
  • How to Carve a SculpturePhoto: Keizo_Kioku
  • How to Carve a SculpturePhoto: Keizo_Kioku



  • Installation view of Solo Exhibition “How to Carve a Sculpture”CNC切削加工の様子
  • How to Carve a SculpturePhoto: Timothée lambrecq
  • How to Carve a SculpturePhoto: Timothée lambrecq
  • How to Carve a SculpturePhoto: Timothée lambrecq
  • How to Carve a SculpturePhoto: Satoshi Nagano
  • How to Carve a SculptureCarved wood. Photo: Wakabayashi Hayato
  • How to Carve a SculptureCarved wood. Photo: Wakabayashi Hayato
  • How to Carve a SculptureCarved wood. Photo: Wakabayashi Hayato
  • How to Carve a SculptureCarved wood. Photo: Wakabayashi Hayato
  • How to Carve a SculptureCNC milling machine-cut wood. Photo: Wakabayashi Hayato
  • How to Carve a SculptureCNC milling machine-cut wood. Photo: Wakabayashi Hayato
  • How to Carve a SculptureCNC milling machine-cut wood. Photo: Wakabayashi Hayato
  • How to Carve a SculptureCNC milling machine-cut wood. Photo: Wakabayashi Hayato
  • How to Carve a SculptureCNC milling machine-cut wood. Photo: Wakabayashi Hayato
  • How to Carve a SculptureCNC milling machine-cut wood. Photo: Wakabayashi Hayato
  • How to Carve a SculptureCNC milling machine-cut wood. Photo: Wakabayashi Hayato
  • How to Carve a SculptureCNC milling machine-cut wood. Photo: Wakabayashi Hayato
  • How to Carve a SculptureCNC milling machine-cut wood. Photo: Wakabayashi Hayato
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