Akiyama Yo
Metavoid by Akiyama Yo
Akiyama Yo (1953- ) is widely considered to be one of the greatest conceptual ceramic artists living today, following in the grand tradition of extremely influential Kyoto avand-garde artists Yagi Kazuo and his artistic group Sodeisha (Suzuki Osamu, Yamada Hikaru, Kumakura Junkichi amongst others). Today he is extremely busy as a university professor at the highly prestigious Kyoto City University of Art, yet Akiyama still finds the time to focus his deep, subtle energies into the art which had made him world-renowned. Akiyama's works have been exhibited worldwide, and he has won a multitude of major awards, a few being the Suntory Museum Award, the Kyoto Prefecture Culture Award, and the Japan Ceramic Society Award. His work is represented in the National Museums in Kyoto and Osaka, Faenza International Ceramics Museum. Italy, and the Victoria & Albert Museum, U.K. Akiyama is half philosopher, half artist. Recently he exhibited his work at the Athens Olympics -only a handful of artists from around the globe were given the honor. Akiyama said of his work, "The work titled OscillationEconsists of a multitude of creviced layers compiled atop one another. I believe that a crackEnot only reveals something about a facade, but also conveys what is happening beneath a surface. In other words, cracks are the ulterior expression of clay's inner nature. In each layered crack are subtle differences in character; when these personalities congregate and interact with one another, the result is a body that oscillates.EOscillation is the essence of energy, and is something that is passed on and conveyed. This summer, by overcoming differences in beliefs and circumstances, the city of Athens will become the reverberating manifestation of people joining together to celebrate the joy that is life. And along with moving the hearts of many, the importance of this celebration will spread throughout the world. I dream my OscillationEwill resonate with Athens." Likewise, the piece exhibited here, titled Metavoid, is a 'smaller' piece that is not an installation -Akiyama works predominantly in installations, and he only makes a dozen or so smaller pieces a year. The themes in his work exhibited at the Olympics is evident in this piece as well: black, cracks, energy. But in the Metavoid series, Akiyama appears to confront rudimentary geometric shapes as how they would appear in nature. The form looks like a large catapult, with a spoon-like crevice. Notice the rustic brown nature in the black, another feature Akiyama intentionally puts into his work to symbolize both Eros (life) and Thanatos (death). It was fired only with a powerful gas burner and was formed with Shigaraki clay. This Metavoid by Akiyama Yo, who is exhibiting at Smith College in its Confronting Tradition: Contemporary Art from Kyoto exhibition, and will also participate in a Japanese ceramic art conference at Harvard in November, is 24cm tall, 27cm wide, and 53cm long. It weighs 22kg. In perfect condition; a rare piece by a very important ceramic artist.
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS
