School of Fine Art Sculpture & Environmental Art

Mahlon Sugawara

(he/him)

My practice explores cultural hybridity through object-making, using speculative fiction to examine how symbols transform across different contexts. Working with figurative wood and stone carvings, drawings, and jewellery, I create objects that exist between traditions, constantly evolving.

Fabulation fills the gaps between inherited narratives, reimagining folklore with chimerical figures and shifting landscapes. These invented stories become a way to process identity as something fluid, where meaning isn’t fixed but constantly reinterpreted. The chimaera is reimagined as something adaptive rather than monstrous, reflecting the way cultural heritage is reshaped through time and distance.

Craft is central to this process. By carving, drawing, and assembling, I engage with family histories while allowing space for new interpretations. The objects I make function like fragments of unwritten myths, holding both personal and collective resonance. Folklore, in its simplest form, helps us navigate change, through my work, I extend that function, using speculative storytelling to explore identity as an ongoing act of reinvention.

Contact
mahlonsugrob@gmail.com
Instagram
Website
Works
Chimaeric Idols of the Year 3030AD
“A New Horoscope of the Year 3030AD, the sky or a petri-dish”

“Chimaeric Wand 1”

chalcedony, ebony wood, 2025

Chimaeric Idols of the Year 3030AD

“Deathly Snail Beetle Under a Shooting Star”

shell, sapphire, metal, 2025
For Sale: Price on Request

“An Aspect of the Concatenation”

ebony wood, silver, 2025
For Sale: Price on Request

“Chimaeric Wand 2”

ebony wood, 2025
For Sale: Price on Request

“Drosophila Duplex Talisman”

bronze, chalcedony, metal, 2025
For Sale: Price on Request

“Drosophila Scombrus Searching a Bone-Field”

chalcedony, metal, 2025
For Sale: Price on Request

“Gormic Cherubic Plea Amulet”

carnelian, bronze, metal, 2025
For Sale: Price on Request

“Repository of Flowered Bones”

bronze, metal, ebony wood, cubic zirconia, 2025
For Sale: Price on Request

“Three-Pronged Sea Snail Pendant"

metal, carnelian, ebony wood, 2025
For Sale: Price on Request

“Bluestone-Faced Protector of Sea-Spores”

Lapis-lazuli, metal, 2025
For Sale: Price on Request

“Belt-Charm with Aspects of the Concatenation”

metal, 2025
For Sale: Price on Request

“Chihuaha-Crab Contemplates the Tendril”

ebony wood, metal, 2025
For Sale: Price on Request

“Strange Seed, a Bodiless Bird Hatches”

yellow quartz, ebony wood, amber, 2025
For Sale: Price on Request

“Cosmogony of Gorm, Amulet”

carnelian, metal, 2025
For Sale: Price on Request

“The Concatenation on Gorms Finger”

chalcedony, metal, 2025
For Sale: Price on Request

“Chimaeric Wand 1”

chalcedony, ebony wood, 2025
For Sale: Price on Request

“A Perfumers Bottle”

ebony wood, metal, chalcedony, 2025
For Sale: Price on Request

“A New Horoscope of the Year 3030AD, the sky or a petri-dish”

“A New Horoscope of the Year 3030AD, the sky or a petri-dish”

charcoal, fabriano paper, 2025
For Sale: Price on Request

“A New Horoscope of the Year 3030AD, the sky or a petri-dish”

charcoal, fabriano paper, 2025

“A New Horoscope of the Year 3030AD, the sky or a petri-dish”

charcoal, fabriano paper, 2025

“A New Horoscope of the Year 3030AD, the sky or a petri-dish”

charcoal, fabriano paper, 2025

“A New Horoscope of the Year 3030AD, the sky or a petri-dish”

charcoal, fabriano paper, 2025