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JAPAN - Ceramics and Photography, Past and Present
Exhibition in the Deichtorhallen Gallery, Hamburg, Germany

The exhibition JAPAN - Ceramics and Photography, Past and Present, being held in the Deichtorhallen Gallery in Hamburg, Germany, compares two disparate art genres in Japan - that of tradition-laden pottery and ceramics and that of the more recent field of photography.

Ceramics occupy a special place in Japanese society and culture, embodying certain cultural, philosophical or religious principles associated with Zen Buddhism, the Tea Ceremony and the Japanese ideal of beauty and humility. But Japanese ceramics are not necessarily functional - sculptural objects were also made, e.g. religious figurines, Buddha statues etc. In Japan today, pottery is made that is based on traditions going back thousands of years, but also ceramics that break with those traditions, e.g. those of the Sodeisha movement.

Oguna NAKANO : Teabowl in Sue-Stile, 1996Akira SOMA, Celadon Bowl, 1996Sajiro TANAKA: Chosen-Karatsu, 2002, Vase in the Form of a Sake Bottle

There is an important thread that runs through traditional Japanese ceramics - that of the 'happy accident'. Flying ash from the Anagama kiln, fuming from adjacent pots, unintentional cracks etc. - in the world of Japanese aesthetics, all these add to, rather than detract from the value of a craft object. But it must be remembered that that value is more of a spiritual, rather than a monetary one, i.e. the object becomes 'priceless'. One such object would be the famous Raku tea bowl by the Japanese master Koetsu (1558-1637), 'Fujisan'.

Ceramic artists represented in this exhibition are selected from a broad range of styles - Seto, Bizen, Hagi and Karatsu. The Modernists are also represented, making pieces more akin to design or conceptual art than anything bearing resemblance to to the enigmatic raku tea bowl. Some of these works, e.g. Nakashima's Porcelain Form, seem to defy the characteristics of the material.

Sueharu FUKAMI, Clearing Mind, 1990, CeladonChieko KATSUMATA: Vessel, 2002, Ash GlazeHarumi NAKASHIMA: Hard Fighting Form, Porcelain, 2002

Contrasting the 'Eastern' genre of ceramics is that of the more 'Western' oriented field of photography. Japanese photography is not laden with the burden of centuries of tradition and thus is free to be more adventurous, more avant-garde.

Masato SETO: 'Tete-à-tete'Takashi YASUMURA: 'Sense of the Universe', 1999Ryuji MIYAMOTO: "So-no-miya", 1995Asako NARAHASHI: "half awake and half asleep in the water"

It takes its themes from Japanese, but also from Western culture, setting up a dichotomy that generates a healthy tension in the works displayed. This tension is also evident in the sometimes troubled relationship between nature and progress, two apparently opposite poles, that the Japanese have embraced equally. And herein lies perhaps the main link back to ceramics, the tear in the very fabric of the Japanese psyche - the tug of war between the old and the new.

Ceramic Artists:

Yo AKIYAMA
Sueharu FUKAMI
Kiyoyuki KATO
Chieko KATSUMATA
Hideo KOBAYASHI
Kosei MATSUI
Hideo MATSUMOTO
Kinpei NAKAMURA
Oguna NAKANO
Harumi NAKASHIMA
Toshio OHI
Hoju SAKAI
Akira SOMA
Shigemitsu TAKEUCHI
Sajiro TANAKA
Seimei TSUJI
Morihiro WADA
Akira YAGI

Photographers:

Nobuyoshi ARAKI
Mikiko HARA
Naoya HATAKEYAMA
Takashi HOMMA
Osamu KANEMURA
Chikashi KASAI
Norio KOBAYASHI
Hiroyuki MASUYAMA
Ryuji MIYAMOTO
Daido MORIYAMA
Yoichi NAGANO
Yurie NAGASHIMA
Asako NARAHASHI
Keiko SASAOKA
Yoshiko SEINO
Masato SETO
Hiroshi SUGIMOTO
Takashi YASUMURA
Tsukasa YOKOZAWA

 

Gallery Press Release (German only)
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