View the sun through a shitajiki, those transparent, decorative pencil-boards ubiquitous to elementary school children in Japan, and you can gaze, squint-free, into its rays. The world transforms when you look directly at the sun because perceptions shift. Shoichi Sakurai, 49, artist, discovered this world view at an early age and has been manipulating perspectives ever since.

Sakurai creates and lives near Hayama, Kanagawa Prefecture, but he typically travels overseas twice a year, showcasing the unusual creations he describes as "redefined, recovered, reclaimed art."

"Especially in Japan, there are so many things left over, things people do not care about anymore, the discarded and abandoned materials, and of course, since I was a kid I did not like the rules, so when I see something that was supposed to be one way, I make it another way," Sakurai said.