Traditional Japanese crafts like tea-ceremony bowls, statuary, ornate lacquerware and precious dolls are given an edgy, individualistic update in an exhibit at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.
Twelve masters of these ancient crafts — or kogei — take them in new directions, inspired by contemporary design, Japanese manga, anime and other modern art forms.
“There is a technical ability inherent in kogei that has the capacity to unleash intense, future-oriented visual imagery,” says curator Yuji Akimoto, director of Japan's 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, in the accompanying catalog.
The show, “Japanese Kogei: Future Forward,” is now on view in New York through Feb. 7.
The ancient crafts' “own special, original richness and beauty ... give voice to the concerns of our time,” Akimoto says.
For instance, inspired in part by Japanese horror films, Kutsuyo Aoki's ceramics combine rococo elements with spooky skeletal forms that “might perhaps be viewed as prayers or exorcisms, with the power to dispel the indefinable feelings of anxiety that proliferate in contemporary society,” Akimoto says.
Yuki Hayama's painstakingly precise works in ceramic reflect a haunting blend of manga, dystopian vision and ancient myth. The work is so detailed it requires ultra-high definition 8k technology — 16 times higher than current HD broadcasts — to fully appreciate.
Tea bowls in the show are boldly graphic, sometimes shown upside down (Yuri Takemura), in bright colors featuring contrasting drippy dots of color (Takuro Kuwata) or made with an eye to transcending physical and cultural boundaries by incorporating clays and techniques from around the world, as in works by Toshio Ohi.
Kohei Nakamura's works in porcelain and iron reference science fiction or apocalyptic scenarios. And Kuwata's enormous vessels feature chunky, glitzy glazes that appear to be breaking apart and descending from his vessels, with decorative elements resembling scraps of demolished buildings.
Other artists take new approaches to the ancient crafts of figurative sculpture or kutaniyaki (a style of glazed pottery from the Edo period).
Two lacquer artists are featured in the exhibit. Shin'ya Yamamura balances fine lacquer techniques with new forms using unusual materials, while Tatsuo Kitamura and his studio apply newly rediscovered lacquer techniques to atypical forms, including wooden eggs and Jewish and Christian religious items.
“The strong sense of individualism found in these works link them equally to art as to traditional craft,” said Ronald T. Labaco, a curator at the Museum of Arts and Design who coordinated the New York show with Samantha De Tillo. “They extend the vitality of kogei into the 21st century.”
The exhibit is accompanied by a catalog written by Akimoto and published by the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art. The book, “Art Crafting Towards the Future,” is named for the original title of the exhibit.
Katherine Roth is an Associated Press staff writer.
