The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 49 No 3 November 2010

left and opposite page: Kenji Uranishi, Stredm , 2009
Ipswk h Courthouse, level 4 public corridor, four ceramic installations
Photos: Florian Groehn
Moving in and out
Louise Martin-Chew exa mines the recent work of Kenji Uranishi
The best public art becomes a true intervention in a space. While this seems obvious, the ability of
sculpture to change the understanding or experience of the viewer - physically, mentally, conceptually -
is its greatest gift
Kenji Uranishi's focus is on physical and conceptual intervention, and while working as a ceramic
artist in Japan he made many installations. This understanding of working in a larger space assisted his
commission for Ipswich Court House (iCH) artwork. After training in Japan in the mid-'90s, he arrived in
Australia to live in 2004. This ICH commission was awarded in 2007.
The concept for this public building in a city outside Brisbane reflects his interest in his new local
environment and its histories. He describes his idea for Stream as stemming from the impact of a stone
in a body of moving water "The stone will sit on the river bed and create a different flow. It attracts
rocks, detritus and leaves, and over time changes the river's shape. From small things, large things
grow." This concept is an apt one for a regional city beside a river as Ipswich is. There is also reference
to the gathering of people in groups, and the presence of the sculpture itself within the building.
Uranishi's three works, located in public areas of the court house, are constructed in glass boxes,
"windows into part of a stream " . Their impact is cumulative. The largest work is situated in the waiting
area and is a series of circular forms, using cell-like components. They sit on their edges, like wheels, in
varying sizes, visually gathering together - for strength, solidarity, sociability.
The second is in a smaller, glassed-in cube, with a series of free-form slabs standing on their ends.
They are organic, softly curving around each other as though one has shaped the other - it is a building
as forest The third work lies conceptually between the first two, a cell-like structure of rectangles
broken into curved part circles. They lie grouped on top of each other, again alluding to the solidarity of
like objects and the way that, put together, these things become closer in form.
34 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2010