3. Juni 2012 - New Ceramics

PROFILE
Frozen Images by
IshIyama TeTsuya
In spring of
2011, I travelled to
Japan for several interviews
for my book, Ceramic Vision-Interviews
with 20 Japanese Ceramic Artists, which was
published at the end of 2011. It was a month after the March
Eleventh Earthquake. During my interviews, Kansai was business
as usual, a sharp contrast to the scenarios in Kanto.
In one of the interviews, a Japanese potter accidentally
handed me a poster from Kurokabe Museum of Art. A turbinelike
turquoise pottery piece floating in green horizontal waves.
The colours are bright but not overly flashy. The plural design
neatly attracts viewers. I was especially interested in its aesthetic
performance and technical challenges. The creator of this
work, Ishiyama Tetsuya, is an acquaintance of mine from my
residence in Shigaraki Cultural Park in 2002. During the nine
years in between, Ishiyama has evolved from his ambiguous art
performance to an artist with so many artistic surprises.
Ishiyama Tetsuya was born in 1973 in Sayama City, Saitama
Prefecture. When he was little, Ishiyama showed his interest in
stones and rocks. With no professional educational background,
he served as an archeological assistant in Sayama Association
of Cultural Heritage for six years. During this period, the association
dedicated itself in the excavations of Jomon pottery and
Nara & Heian Pottery. Due to severe damage to archaeological
remains on site, most Jomon pottery made in low temperature
kilns was destroyed. Though wood-fired Sue ware was
preserved, Ishiyama was mandated to duplicate these ancient
Ting-Ju Shao
pottery
artifacts.
This was his
first encounter
with clay.
Six years of duplication
and reconstruction have raised
Ishimaya’s interests in pottery. Although
he has never had formal pottery lessons, Ishimaya seems to be
very dexterous and has natural aesthetic radar. He even managed
to make his own teapots. In 2001 Ishimaya participated in a
competition for tea bowls and won the grand prize. His works
became the collection for the organizers.
In 2002, he applied for a 7-month stay as a resident artist at
Shigaraki Cultural Park in Japan. At that time his goal was to
focus on tea set creation. Nonetheless, he found out his senior
potters or younger peers all concentrated on ceramic art objects
rather than daily tableware. This was a big shock for him, and
he too embarked on his first creation.
Later he successfully made a sculptures 80 centimetres in
width, which was called "Dinosaurs—A Picture in My Heart."
With masks, screws, dinosaur skulls and other tools, he created
an art piece similar to an abandoned factory.
When this work was near completion, I once stopped by and
watched. At the time, he told me the original work had suffered
from serious cracks, so what I saw was already the second
version. "Dinosaurs—A Picture in My Heart" later won the silver
medal in a “Humorous Sculpture Exhibition”. To me, from a
viewer’s point, the large-scale structure of this work and its keel
showed his skills in throwing and moulding, but these practices
are not unique. More importantly, viewers were not able to
24 NEW CERAMICS May / June 2012
photo Sugimoto Kensei