This is the artwork I exhibited in Salon des Beaux Arts 2016, one of the most prestigious exhibition in which I was awarded two golden medals last year. This artwork has more than 170 cm in height. As you may be aware, large pieces are very rare in pottery. Not only is the successful firing of a large piece challenging, but also the fusion of pottery and glass ? the most important feature of Ishigaki-yaki Pottery that we excel – adds more challenge to overcome, because pottery and glass have different shrinkage ratios. It took more than a year to finish the piece.
Blue and light have long been considered to represent hope in Japan and Europe since the ancient times. This artwork represents the ray of mercy that encompasses all beings with unwavering hope.
The miraculous fusion of glass and mineral breathe life into Ishigaki Blue. The lights that shined onto Ishigaki Blue not only reflect on its surface but also go deeper inside, as if to receive the message of hope and come out again. This doesn’t happen to ordinary tiles which just reflect light on its surface.
This artwork also expresses the eternity of the ray of hope, as the reflections of light can be witnessed from every angles.
Equally, the artwork represents the eternal prosperity by making the two pieces asymmetry. In Japan, asymmetry is used to express the incompleteness of all beings and the hope of eternal prosperity. Just like the Himeji castle, a Japanese national treasure, which has one of its roof-tile placed upside down intentionally, this artwork has two non-identical shapes. Each one of them is incomplete but when the two come together, they reach perfection.