PURE FORM: JAPANESE CERAMICS

 

This week I travelled to see a major ceramic exhibition in the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA). The focus of the exhibition is on ceramics of the post WW II period, when revolutionary aesthetic and technical developments took place. It is the most extensive exhibition of ceramics I have seen in Australia and is completely extraordinary and beautiful. Over 100 ceramic works have been drawn from public and private collections. If you have a chance to be in Adelaide before November 6th don't miss the opportunity to see the exhibition.

Coincidently, in the week I was able to travel to Adelaide, the South Australian Branch of the Sogetsu School had been invited to create small installations within the exhibition and to present a demonstration on Friday evening in the cafe of AGSA. I was privileged to be invited to participate in both events.

On Thursday Ray Bywaters, the Director of the South Australian Branch of the Sogetsu School (above), Maureen Arnott and I planned and prepared the ikebana work we would present at the evening demonstration.

This photo shows left to right, Ray's installation model for a vessel in the exhibition, and one each of Maureen's and Ray's demonstration practice works. 

For the installations in the gallery we were offered three vessels to use with the agreement of the owner of the vessels, Raphy Star, who had loaned them to the AGSA for the exhibition. Conditions applied! Our materials had to pass the assessment of the technical officer responsible for the biosecurity of the gallery. The officer needed to be confident our materials would not present a hazard to the other art works in the gallery. Specifically, that meant the materials had to be free of any insect pests that could cause harm to other art works. As a consequence, we all used some man-made materials and a small amount of botanical material that could be easily inspected to be free of insect infestation. Additionally, we could not use water in the vessels. Our botanical materials were either dry or could survive 24 hours without water.

This is the small section of the exhibition where we set-up the three installations on Friday morning. The vessels we used were the far left, the fourth from the left and the last vessel on the right hand side.

Ray and Maureen during the set-up of the installations.

Early in the evening Ray, Maureen and I...

... were interviewed by the Curator of Asian Art at AGSA, Russell Kelty. He asked us how we came to ikebana and about the relationship between ceramics and ikebana. Questions were also taken from the fifty or so members of the public who attended the event.

Ray with her installation.

The vessel was by Sakiyama Takayuki. The materials were coloured and woven bamboo strips with three Aspidistra leaves.

Maureen with her installation in an Oribe-ware glazed vessel by Kioe Ryoji.

Maureen's materials were white and green synthetic mesh and a mass of red dyed Billy buttons, Pycnosorus globosus.

My installation...

... was in a vessel called "Kaze" (wind) by Kohyama Yasuhisa. The vessel leaned strongly to the left, with a blade that swept to the right. The materials I used were New Zealand flax and red tissue paper rolled into thin straws. The flax leaf was placed so that it swept around the vessel without touching it except where it issued from and returned to the mouth the vessel.

Next week I will post some photos of the demonstration that followed the interview.

Greetings from Christopher

8th October 2022