Koichiro Isezaki _ Bizen potter _ Exhibition Walkthrough _ GOLDMARK.TV

Ancient ruins of Hieizan Japan's oldest rubble site This site has been accumulating rubble for eight hundred years Kotaro Usazaki one of the ruins of Uzaki In this exhibition you'll not only witness modern Bichan It will also witness modern fresh and contemporary rubble It will also witness the future I hope you enjoy this exhibition Welcome to our latest debris exhibition Golden Lion Pavilion Japan Debris Exhibition Kotaro Usazaki rubble Kotaro rubble from Hizen Okayama Prefecture Japan Rubble Center Eight hundred years old perhaps even older For centuries There have been numerous changes transformations and advancements Takakazu Debris Center Please leave Yes Debris Center Takakazu This is the Debris Center Witnessed Mi Sheng's debris Debris district center Debris central hub Debris display zone during the 20th century But Coetreau was actually arriving at the pub truth impossible When they were progressing as young students He was heading to the university the university and for many years now He was working as a realist He was during that period He would prefer to attend the session to work on specific issues Am I actually working in a real workshop What are their observations Is this the only way I can use it when I can't manage anything else He wasn't expecting to come to the school but he ended up coming to the classroom realizing that here in the Isisaki room where his kind had worked at was where they had worked the issues e conversation the university the information resources and the cultures around them all ready to adopt change o embrace a new life At this school we will be receiving substance of the information regarding the matters the key connectio capable of developing over a long period of time with a complex set of issues and working methods that are very difficult When you speak with Coetreau it's a conversation dento a sound clearly audible on its way and I can hear you general body of information to be worked on in the future The noise is rising once again This sound has been growing all along That's what we're talking about when we discuss activism It's not just another sound undreds of discussions being held and developed and the sound of Beazenware is one that blends seamlessly with its surroundings Together with the struggle together with life we are united in our common cause The emissions and the fumes from the surrounding traffic are polluting the environment Complete set of community practice badges In reality one of the most crucial aspects of the local environme your designs for the pages of the recent books Full compensation for the inspector due to the raffle irregularity Future Warriors of Beazen The woods the paths e largest number of tunnel junctions established across the rooms In this practical field It's an initiative they are aware of Mae Coetreau often goes there to see the men's dormitory rooms The great road was lined with rows of pottery shards ways that are carried out over a long period of time Awareness of the world around us is what drives its creation More human trafficking victims are being identified each year than ever before In a single operation the machine can handle up to 35 000 rotations He is also part of a global movement of passionate gardeners a worldwide community of dedicated individuals raditional Welsh cakes that have been discontinued It's not suitable for use in the National Youth Campaign The world is awakening from its illusion returning to its true reality I returned to the discussions methods and processes that had been carried out during that time Mae Coetro among the pioneers That's about taking those processes and creating something truly new with them Historically the Beisenwer pottery wheel has been brought back to life It's returning to the Anagama environment returning to the kiln The process of returning to the board and coming back to the board coming back to the board and coming back to the board And yet he managed to genuinely return to do it It is adaptable in its environment enabling diverse adaptations on the surface of the Beisenwyr We're not discussing our special tradition And that was the way the Beisen brewing had been done for most of every century In short it's a house of cards There are two additional cases involving Beisen The first one arrives at the network nodes every 2 to 3 years It's perfectly fine to work on it It's really good to work with It's really really really good to work with The networks used by the pioneers over the past decades have been instrumental Here you have a solid network of contacts that can help you make even better connections mportant plans such as these The network is also used by the clau it can wear it it can operate in the clau It's a network that's clearly difficult to create This network is in these clays This network is difficult for this network This network highlights the industry that was planned there for Coytra upon his return and the tradition that we would see its kind continue for many years ahead That's what we'd see him doing next One of the great things about this cloak is that it's truly functional This means that within the flash atmosphere of the kiln flames will work their way through such holes where each hole will be uniquely modified The roads are continuing forward The roads are being damaged by the food being transported along them It has immediate effects from the roads clearly evident from the roads themselves The roads are continuing forward whatever effects they may be having Everyone tells a different story You can see it clearly from these paths There is a wide variety of floral forms and central structures being exemplified In the context of the Day of Judgment this was revealed through public revelations You may have heard about the sudden passing of the poet it's a day of solemn mourning And it includes a large variety of effects being able to have each other is what I value most in life owing how to use the fuel owing how to stack knowing how to fire through the kiln owing how to reduce the pots and how to use the flame between them Many of these different effects are variations of one another We will see some of them further away here in this exhibition hall We'll see the different effects of this tokuri the sake bottle There are a few brown leaves scattered around here and a few different types of shrubs scattered further out here too through the gap between them These different effects are written as gum It is responsible for the session A few of these phenomena can be seen on the pottery and the bizen In different ways writing about other things in the world For example A few of the potions are written for the world perhaps using different methods It has been written by someone else The flame is planned and the flame is not planned and a little of the different effects mentioned here A few of these phenomena can be seen on the pottery and the bronze These phenomena occur these phenomena are interacting with the other fullness At this moment especially the struggles here after my time at Goitreau The children were all advancing steadily forward in line These powers the three forms at this point are those that follow the row namely the establishment e point is to say it in a way that makes sense Having been dismissed in disgrace the way they showed themselves was like blots on the eye They're clearing the debris from the flame You can see they've been working far from the main site The tray is delivering the fire box These pots draw attention to how Coetro embraces reality e material and methods based on Beazen and discovering new approaches I'll produce in clean form We'll go ahead and proceed You can see from the common pathways how Coetro has been discovered in this series one of the many ways to take the path of work the matters the processes The way to work in the future is to discover something new to say Discovering new ways to produce it You might also see perhaps s impact at that time studying skills After graduating from university Coetro had been working with his kind for just a few years knowing the specific ways working in Beazen before going to teach with Jeff Shapiro in Wales which had been taug along with one of his peers He knew Jeff had children there were family ties there and being taught about different cultures and the passage of time in Wales I believe aving affected Coetro's work That meant when he returned to Wales was able to look at some of these questions in general What does Beazen mean What is the discussion Is this the discussion You'll see among these pots here we have white clay here as well as Chawan In truth the story behind this conversation is connected to the story of Beazen himself That was the moment the discussion in Wales truly began in earnest during the cou different cultures around the world Beazen saw his contributions as an institution of design ceramigau were highly valued during their introduction The reality of their time meant and was unable to receive the usual type of treatment It was not capable of the common kind of treatment commonly used They had the Wales accounts being used in these accounts which was the effort e cultural rights of workers who are being exploited And then these calculations have changed and during this time have become something that exists during They have the accounts with them These calculations here completelyfar more rights that we will confirm If they were the calculations here in the calculations there the calculations in the calculations there those calculations ofte The offer is in the calculations and making a few minor adjustments to their weight In no time at all they're another group of ceramic artists They are very clearly distinguished You can see from this vantage point The facets are beautiful to see revealing the true brilliance of the stone itself appearing as stone You can see all the paths of paths of paths of paths of paths In this context prior to any action means different things This green is lovely and easy to make with the summer of ash and dawning revealing all paths among all paths differently politically this situation is quite different The craftsmanship for such tea bowls as seen in the Japanese tea ceremony did not endure for long It wasn't too many years before competing tastes emerged different schools of tea ceremony tradition e competing patronage of different warrior elites soon gave rise to numerous distinct styles of tea ceremony and very quickly bizin ware which had reached the peak of its popularity It was suddenly finding itself neglected once more And truly that marked the beginning of a very long period of decline It's only in the past century or so that this particular style of bizin ware pottery has been brought back to life You can likely also tell from the striking difference the colors of these pots here the varying hues of the clay the different effects achieved in a single firing the blending of one's clays Making the most of what is available to him is a vital part of Koichiro's practice In a sense tradition has constrained him—limiting him to the clays he cannot alter the fire he cannot change the kiln technology he’s bound by which although contemporary is essentially the same as it has been some 500 to 600 years ago and ultimately comes down to how he can make his own individual choices within those parameters blending his clays personally experimenting with the right mix of clays dug from rice paddies and mountain sources e specific areas within the kiln where he'll be able to achieve the effects he's aiming for It's within those parameters as they become more precise at you begin to recognize the distinct voice the unique expression that defines Koichiro's work If you move around to this side here you'll see that one of the fundamental things he has going for him is the fact that although the fire can't be changed Although the kiln cannot be changed and the clays cannot be changed clay is fundamentally a malleable and manipulable material It's a medium that lends itself to almost infinite variation And so here we see it in many different forms We have these lovely fluid fluted marks on this vase and this exquisite water container the mizusashi right here where it's like a lid This is where the ease of working with clay and the ability to bring out varied textures stands in sharp contrast to the wood carving he was accustomed to as a student You can also see from the remarkably simple forms of his chawan so different from the highly structured elaborately constructed shapes of some of his vases And then once we reach shelves like these we see clay being thoroughly explored in all its diversity There are several tall vase-like forms scattered throughout this exhibition And it's this combination of compressed sections along with these bulbous areas that play with volume e kinds of elements we discuss in the realm of sculpture—contour volume mass—each translate beautifully into the firing process offering a variety of distinct surface qualities Various types of transitions from one shape to another completely alter how the fire moves around the pot and change how ash settles on its surface And thus they create a completely different kind of movement around them They convey a vastly different narrative about the firing process itself It's also here on these shelves that we see two pots at truly highlight one of the defining characteristics of Bizen pottery Bizen decorative pottery which is hiratsuki—this coiled rope- like pattern adorning the surface of the vessel And this vase down here in the corner That's very typical of Bizen ware And it's yet another feature that traces back many years essentially to an old function There is some debate surrounding the issue but it is believed that potters in Bizen traditionally did not use wadding —clay wadding a type of refractory clay o separate their pots from kiln shelves or from each other and prevent them from sticking together they often used rice straw instead wrapping it directly around the pots And as the kiln temperature rises Those strands of straw would leave ghost-like impressions as they burned away during firing creating these scorched marks on the iron-rich clay And so what was once a function what was once a utilitarian practice has been adapted over many many years and used exploited as a decorative feature And it's another aspect that offers nearly infinite variation Depending on how the straw is wrapped you can achieve very sparse arrangements like the one seen on this vase where these red lines intersect the larger lighter mass of the pot Or they can be placed at the base of pots to add visual interest Combining this speckled gomma appearance with the flashing visible across the vase on the opposite side here When you're working within an established tradition when a vocabulary is already available to you when the materials and processes are predefined What becomes vitally important is that you are reflective seeking inspiration and influence beyond the boundaries of your own traditions One of the things Koichiro revealed in some of his interviews leading up to this show was that he has a particular interest in film especially the work of the Japanese director Yasujirō Ōzu Ōzu was a highly renowned Japanese filmmaker His films from the 1940s and 1950s are deeply character-driven exploring how Japanese society was transforming during that era During a highly turbulent period in its history—coincidentally aligning with the Momoyama revival—there was also a renewed interest in bisonware pottery itself What defines his films is an extremely precise structure and composition in his shots Almost all of them are static intersected by lines and angles a setup that is entirely driven by plot and character designed to quietly and subtly tell the story of these evolving relationships Relationships that are mirrored in the spatial relationships You can see this in some of Koichiro's highly contemporary works —his large sculpturally formed pots here These two brought here together as a pair almost seem like characters in their own right They feel like two people having a conversation a dialogue The way the clay has been coaxed to fold in on itself This kind of relaxation the twisting motion in the pots is as character-driven as any shot in a Mōzu film And it shows Koichiro finding a way within the limitations of his material and medium to express something profoundly deep and deeply human as well as discovering something new to say In a long-standing tradition It's often said of wood-fired pottery especially pieces like this that at first glance—particularly if you're unfamiliar with it—they seem like a sea of brown pots at the true pleasure the real joy in it lies in the nuances in the small details in the varied effects that subtle shifts in atmosphere can create On the same material Here on shelves like these we can see the remarkable variety of what Koichiro is able to coax from his kiln We can observe some of the subtle effects of ash settling on pots those shielded from direct exposure amidst the surrounding ones And we can also see how the ash behaves at the highest temperatures They can drip and pool to form these glassy beads and surfaces which I'm certain our viewers are very familiar with What I love about this show what I love about these pots is that even though these are effects many of us are already familiar with—effects that have already been introduced to the West— and that Western potters have greatly adapted it to suit their own needs it's evident in Koichiro's use of form It's in his remarkably fresh approach to clay and structure in the way he brings to his work the knowledge he's gained from the world of sculpture and that sculptural perspective That means these same effects feel entirely different—they come alive in a distinct way I love how on this pot this area that's been shielded from the clay This fired pot lying here like this After carefully considering every detail of the kiln's loading Koichiro has managed to keep this side of the pot remarkably free of ash And thus you end up with the clay almost exactly as it was extracted from the earth And then almost instantly this shift in effects— the increasing speckling with ash the deepening red of the clay and this exquisite fringe of glass beads — at are simply curling over on this side here And all those layers that very rapid shift from raw clay to the effects of fire and ash can be interpreted in a completely different manner on the clay on the grand scale once it's standing there And so back to that question Dento what exactly is tradition What does it represent What does it mean In what way is it more significant than mere inherited materials e processes the kilns the ways of the past Well I think in Koichiro’s work we can see his own belief in tradition—that it is a living thing not merely an inheritance Because of course it doesn't die with him It will carry on through him It's not merely something he receives and passes on but it's something he will carry forward and pass on to the next successor to the next generation As a result tradition has always had to adapt evolve and change with the times using certain parameters and limitations and discovered new ways to exploit them I really appreciate Koichiro's father's way of putting it—that tradition is an accumulation of creativity You can see in Koichiro's pots how that creative current has been allowed to flow and how it has been applied to a wide range of forms The way he's given us these sculptural forms which on the one hand feel quite natural Some of these large vases feel almost like giant pumpkins or gourds They feel like something that's grown straight up from the ground Some of these vases remind me almos of the type of stamens and stigmas found in flower heads And then others give me the feeling of almost old armor—something that's been meticulously worn and shaped over time these smooth clean rounded forms They feel almost more industrial as if they've been shaped almost like a Brancusi head But I think my favorite of his forms and a signature process which have now become part of Koichiro 's own vocabulary—these pulse vases These have been made using a pugmill from which he has extruded cylinders of clay hollow ones And these can then be transferred to large molds They're almost like beds he's crafted using these patterns The cylinder still wet and pliable can still be easily altered It is then nearly pressed down into the mold to create this textured surface here this pattern This kind of grating pattern here And as the clay is pressed down this also influences the shape itself—the clay collapses inward flattening toward the top This is a truly beautiful example It appears to have been fired while sitting down in a bed of something that has produced this stunning color in the clay And this side shielded from the ash the embers and the thick layer of ash that has settled on this surface from the fire's stoking and giving it this striking pockmarked texture here which is once again almost stone-like almost as if lichen is growing on the surface of ancient stone or rock This marks Ko Ichiro's first solo exhibition in the UK And as I've walked around it the same phrase keeps coming to mind It's a very famous one often attributed to Mahler but it likely predates him by several years And that’s the idea that tradition isn’t the veneration of ashes but the passing down of the flame In the case of the Isizakis it's a very literal flame that's been passed down It's the same fire that has been burning in Bizen for 800 or 900 years But when we look around this exhibition and see the sense of form e sculptural sensibilities Ko Ichiro brings to Bizenware combining utterly new distinct and unprecedented forms Amid the familiar rhythms of flame and ash the kiln’s unpredictable nature it is here that we glimpse not just I believe contemporary Bizenware but its future Ko Ichiro gives us a glimpse of where Bizen pottery is headed in the years to come And that's truly exciting to see I think Before we go I just want to quickly thank the three people who helped me see these pots in a whole new light and opened up the world of Bizen Bizen's history to me That's three people who've written about Ko Ichiro's work for us You'll see their work featured in the catalogue for this exhibition and in our latest autumn magazine So my thanks go to Dr Nicole Coolidge-Rismanier at the Sainsbury Institute o Masahiro Karasawa at the National Museum of Art and Craft in Japan and to Dr Robin Wilson in Oxford Between the three of them they've truly helped me see these pots in a whole new way There's no way we can ever fully convey just how much these films mean e depth of surface textures the range of colors the way the pots feel in your hands but I hope from this brief preview that you've gotten a little taste for what Bizen has to offer and what especially Ko Ichiro has to say in his medium I hope you've enjoyed today