Perceptions in Clay

Ceramist Kawabata Kentaro lives in a very rural area in Mizumi City in Gifu Prefecture with his wife and his two sons.  He graduated from Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center in 2000.  The following year, he was the recipient of the Grand Prize at the Oribe-no-Kokoro exhibition in Gifu which brought him notable attention.  In 2004, he was awarded the Kamoto Shoji Award at the Mashiko Ceramic Exhibition, one the most important ceramic exhibitions in Japan. This was followed by the Grand Prize at the Paramita Museum Ceramic Exhibition in Mie in 2007. Because of these significant achievements early in his career Kawabata’s reputation has quickly spread throughout the world of Japanese ceramics.

All of Kawabata’s sculptures have an animated, almost playful quality, but some seem more organic than others because they are partially decorated with a voluptuous deep red glaze (containing copper) known as shinsha in Japanese, which on porcelain produces a resemblance to human flesh, blood and viscera.  However, this somewhat disturbing aspect is quickly offset by the intricacy of Kawabata’s use of glass and his complex surface decorations. His pieces are formed by coils in which small pieces of colored glass are embedded and the surfaces smoothed by hand.  All of the decorations are applied before the bisque firing, which only partially melts the surface of the particles of glass. When these small pieces of glass embedded in the clay completely melt during the firing they blend into the surface glaze to produce delicate flows of color not unlike watercolors on paper.  Depending on the control of the firing, often some of the bits of glass do not completely melt and resemble rough cut jewels embedded in the porcelain.  In addition to the bits of glass Kawabata also applies intricate decorative  patterns of glaze on the surface, often hidden from view.  This combination of delicate surface designs on such animated forms produces an effect which is curious, at times even baffling.

While Kawabata’s distinctive techniques remain the same, the forms and styles of his work change dramatically from time to time, suggesting some profound new influences.  Not so.  Most of his new pieces emerge out of some simple everyday occurrence.  For example, when he found the legs of a cricket, which were the remains of his cat’s lunch, his pieces began to resemble parts of insects; when on certain occasions he felt he had been “scooped up” and saved by someone, his pieces resembled the shape of a spoon; as he saw his wife’s stomach grow larger during her pregnancy, his forms developed a swollen aspect.  Rather than aim toward completing an image in his mind, he says that he has conversations with the clay, allowing spontaneous experiences to transform the clay as he works it.

Although many people are intrigued by the spontaneity of his work and his conversations that remind them of Zen riddles, they also acknowledge his keen conceptual approach to experimentation with different materials.  It was in the process of analyzing the different mineral components of glazes that he came upon the use of glass.   Initially he tried embedding bits of iron in the clay and applying sand (silica) on the surface.  But his experiments with fragments of colored glass has now become his distinctive signature of surface design.  He has spent considerable time experimenting with the length and temperature required for firing the porcelain, while at the same time controlling the satisfactory blending of the glaze and the embedded glass.

Kawabata’s preference for porcelain has not been without complications.  Unlike stoneware, porcelain is not as malleable or flexible, and it tears easily, especially when working on a thin edge.  Unsatisfied with the response of the porcelain, he tried to pleat an unmanageable edge.  Satisfied, he now employs this technique frequently, and the folded pleats remind him of the “folds” in his memory that preserve the multiple experiences of his daily life that influence his work.

CERAMIC PERSPECTIVES is Kawabata’s second solo exhibition at the KEIKO Gallery, and for this exhibition he has selected his large sculptural piece entitled Batista, as well small sculptures and several vessel forms.