Pull Push Products. / HITOTSUHITOTSU
ーContemporary Craft and Experimental Art
Ground Floor / Room No. 4
About the Exhibitor
Nobuhiro Sato / Pull Push Products. / HITOTSUHITOTSU (1212)
Based in Kyoto and originally from Kanagawa, Nobuhiro Sato is a craft artist and designer. Drawing on his background in architecture, he explores the potential of materials, storytelling, and human thought in everyday life through two distinct projects: "Pull Push Products.," which creates items for daily living, and "HITOTSUHITOTSU (1212)," which uses the creative process itself as a form of expression.
Pull Push Products.
Founded in 2002, Pull Push Products. is a brand creating handcrafted items, centred on the concepts of “material” and “story.” The brand reimagines construction materials such as mortar and cement into delicate everyday objects. The “Motif” collection features urban landscapes and buildings, including incense pots where smoke rises like chimneys and apartment-building planters whose textures deepen with weathering. All pieces are handcrafted in a studio in Kyoto.
HITOTSUHITOTSU (1212)
Launched in 2009, HITOTSUHITOTSU (1212) is an experimental project that transforms everyday observations and the creative process into art through the use of materials. The 2023 “I must” collection explores the concept of “completion” by showing the artist altering existing forms, such as filling in imperfections on sculptures or industrial products with putty. This act is an inquiry into conventional ideas of "completion," and the process of exploring the line between intentional and unintentional creation is considered the work itself.
Nobuhiro Sato (Sato Nobuhiro)
Born in Kanagawa in 1977, Sato studied architecture at Kyoto Seika University before founding Pull Push Products. in 2002 and launching HITOTSUHITOTSU (1212) in 2009.
About the Products
Pull Push Products. creates objects that bring new perspectives and sensations to everyday life by observing the nature, structure, and relationships of materials with time. In its signature mortar series, architectural lines, planes, and shadows capture traces of urban landscapes and human activity. Works like the LODGE INCENSE POT incense holder, resembling a small building with smoke rising like a chimney, and the MANSION PLANTER, an apartment-shaped planter, whose expression evolves with wind and rain, reveal the warmth and narrative hidden within rigid materials. Another series reinterprets mortar as a sensory material, where cracks and chips from thin plastering techniques become expressions in themselves, adding new textures to the landscape of everyday life.
HITOTSUHITOTSU (1212) explores the act of making itself. In the I must series, the process of reworking completed forms—driven by an inner impulse of “I must”—becomes the work itself, investigating the boundaries between intention and non-intention, completion and incompletion. The Imust… series, on the other hand, explores beauty that emerges within action, accepting accidental shapes and traces that arise from engaging with the uncontrollable movements of materials.
Through these practices, Nobuhiro Sato generates new sensations and reflections on everyday life, blending experimentation, materiality, and observation across both Pull Push Products. and HITOTSUHITOTSU.
