photo: WATANABE Osamu
Form-0811: Twisting Back, Multiplying
| Artist | NAKASHIMA Harumi |
|---|---|
| Year | 2008 |
| Material/ Technique | porcelain |
| Size/ Duration | H69 × W67 × D39cm |
| Copyright Notice | © NAKASHIMA Harumi |
| Year of acquisition/ donation | 2011 |
| Description | Born in Gifu, Japan in 1950. Lives and works there. Nakashima encountered YAGI Kazuo and the artists of Sodeisha while at Osaka University of the Arts, and began producing ceramic objects. Upon graduating, he worked at a Shigaraki ceramics company, then obtained employment at Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center. Since 2003, he has taught ceramic arts as a professor at Aichi University of Education. Nakashima’s creations arise from the qualities he discovers in the clay during the production process, as well as from the distinctive materiality of pottery and the processes by which clay becomes ceramics. On this basis, he produces strikingly original works of multiplying polka-dot spheres. This is a work from the “Twisting Back, Multiplying” series Nakashima embarked on in 2007. Although made of hard ceramic material, his works formally evoke growing, self-propagating life forms. Nakashima does not work from drawings when creating his forms. Rather, adding clay little by little, he hand-forms the body – working in close rapport with the clay material – and strives to reveal an image latent within him. This method enables him to create ceramic forms that seem to grow upward. When first embarking on such work, Nakashima was coating the clay with a white slip, but from around 2001, he came to employ porcelain instead. Producing an object using porcelain, which easily shrinks and deforms, became a struggle with the material, as implied by the title of his previous series, “Struggling Forms.” By employing a white surface of greater transparency and a thin ceramic edge, however, he has achieved an overall sense of tension. In appearance, the works suggest human beings, struggling to keep their balance but foiled by their own absurdity. |
NOTES
This Collection Data page contains the works and materials in the collection of 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, as of April 1, 2018.
Artists are listed alphabetically by artist’s surname.
Works and materials by the same artists are listed according to the date of the work in principle.
Works whose dates are unidentified are listed at the end of each item. Some works are not listed according to the date of work due to their relations.
The data of works and materials are listed in order of title, production year, material/technique/form, dimensions, donor’s name, copyright holder and credit for photograph.
Dimensions are given by height (H) x width (W) in centimeters for plane work, and height (H) x width (W) x depth (D) in cm for 3-D work. Diameter (Ø) is used for circular work.
For the name of country or city, the name currently used in English is listed in principle.