KOJI HATAKEYAMA THE RADIANT VOID
LESLEY KEHOE GALLERIES
畠 山 耕 治
LESLEY KEHOE GALLERIES TUESDAY ~ FRIDAY 11AM – 5PM GROUND FLOOR 101 COLLINS ST OTHER TIMES BY APPOINTMENT
畠 山 耕 治
b. 1956 Takaoka Japan
KOJI HATAKEYAMA
14 SEPT 2016 – 21 OCT 2016 THE RADIANT VOID
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KOJI HATAKEYAMA
“I create contained vessels, I try to convey the sense that something is concealed or hidden within. I try to provoke a sense of the spiritual world in my bronze boxes. The patterns and facets I create on the outside are a direct response to the landscape, real or imagined. I find that using gold or silver leaf within the interiors, there is a sense of enlightenment when opening the lid, my intention is to enter a different world, a different place. This place has no darkness. My consciousness is veiled in bronze.� KOJI HATAKEYAMA
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THE RADIANT VOID KOJI HATAKEYAMA BRONZE CASTING
Koji Hatakeyama, born 1956, hails from Takaoka city, present day Toyama prefecture, historically part of the Kaga feudal domain of the renowned Maeda daimyo. Significant patrons of the arts, the Maeda established Kaga as the centre of longstanding traditions in bronze casting, ceramic (Kutani) and lacquer (kaga makie). Maeda Toshinaga (1562-1614) named the city of Takaoka in 1609 and in 1611 commanded seven bronze casters (imoji) to the city, thereby establishing an art and craft industry which has continued for over 400 years, currently supplying some ninety percent of Japan’s casting works, religious and secular. The Meiji Period (18681912) and the Great Expositions of Europe saw Japanese metalwork, with its alluring alloys, rare surface patinas and exotic inlay techniques, wildly lauded by a voracious and happily startled audience. Koji Hatakeyama has eschewed the traditional Japanese studio system, assumed the role of the individual contemporary artist and positioned himself firmly on the international stage. He adopts and adapts elements of the tradition as it suits his individual philosophy and
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Lesley Kehoe BA MA FRAS
practice, ‘My consciousness is veiled in bronze’. Techniques and materials are traditional. He creates organically profound abstract landscapes on bronze surfaces with miso paste and vinegar, and uses gold and silver foil selectively in interior spaces. His forms are redolent of tradition and appear functional, yet transcend this and are experiential. He straddles the supposed disparate worlds of the traditional and the contemporary, the functional and the autonomous, creating both unique contemporary artworks and works for use in the formal practice of tea. The body of artworks exists in a separate dimension from the tea vessels and differentiation is a conscious decision. Hatakeyama’s works are held in a significant number of international museums including the V&A London, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, Museo de Arte Moderno, Argentina, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa, Japan and the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia. He is exhibited regularly in Europe, the UK and the USA and has received several prestigious art awards in Japan.
KOJI HATAKEYAMA
The ‘contained vessel’ is Koji Hatakeyama’s choice as the physical expression of his creativity. He speaks of the ‘illustrious and unambiguous’ tradition of the box in Japanese cultural history – and seeks a legacy therein. This unambiguous tradition is inextricably linked to the often demeaned aesthetic philosophy of the beauty of function, ‘yō no bi’ (用の美), an integral part of Japanese art and cultural history.1 Boxes of grand and humble design, of grand and humble purpose, of grand and humble shape, size and material, permeated the daily lives of the Japanese and continue to do so. The elegant pursuits of the aristocracy and the quotidian activities of the other classes of traditional Japanese society took place in the context of boxes: Exotically shaped and richly decorated boxes for the incense game (kōgō, kōbako);2 allusively encoded inkstone boxes (suzuribako) for the brushing of love poems and the tallying of merchants’ accounts; subtly decorated containers for tea powder used in the formal practice of tea (chaire, natsume) to name but a few. And then there is the venerable tomobako, the still current, and part of Hatakeyama’s practice, simply elegant, unadorned wooden box bearing the signature and seal of the artist, the imprimatur of a tea master or acknowledged aficionado, and perhaps the record of decades, centuries of illustrious provenance. Context and class expressed themselves further in the designations of each box for domestic and formal use: omote and oku: Literally, ‘outside’ and ‘inside’, these can be applied
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in the first instance to the obvious outer and inner parts of a box, Hatakeyama’s ‘contained vessel’. There is a psychological counterpart to this, omote and ura, representing the public and private. In the etiquette and practice of using boxes, there were those designated for domestic use (oku) and those, more elaborate and symbols of status and power, set aside for conspicuous display and the entertainment of guests (omote).3 ‘Outer’ and ‘Inner’ represent duality, metaphors for the superficial and the profound; the easily perceived veneer and the deeply embedded core. This implied duality is expressed variously in Hatakeyama’s works: the physical outside and inside (omote and oku/ura); traditional techniques and modern interpretation; function and a-function; solid and flowing; form and abstraction; filled and unfilled space (yohaku); matter and void. It is in the discovery of the ‘inner’ that Hatakeyama’s work is experiential. A lidded vessel is seductively inviting: Its hidden interior tempts with intriguing possibilities - what is inside? is something inside? It is an invitation to the intimacy of personal discovery and curiosity must be sated.4 The inner spaces of Hatakayama’s vessels are made radiant with the use of gold and silver foil, ‘This place has no darkness.’ The term ‘radiant’ is selected to describe the void of Hatakeyama’s inner spaces in both literal and spiritual senses: Literal in that his use of gold and silver foil radiates light from confined interior spaces; spiritual in that ‘radiance’ suggests an otherworldliness, an ethereal light and depth, the enlightenment of the void.
A part that was somewhat unceremoniously dumped by Western art historians in the late 19th century as they sought to force Japanese art into Western categories.
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Cherished also by the European aristocracy and well represented in the collection of Marie-Antoinette. See De Waal, E. The Hare With Amber Eyes Chatto and Windus London 2010 and Kopplin, M. Japanische Lacke Die Sammlung der Königin Marie-Antoinette Hirmer 2001 3
The Shogun Age Exhibition Tokugawa Art Museum 1983
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Traditional Japanese artists certainly understood this human foible, exploiting it to their, and the viewers’, benefit by creating wondrous aesthetic interiors to be discovered. The interior of boxes, particularly inkstone boxes (suzuribako), surprise with the unexpected disparity of aesthetic, technique and theme from outside to inside. On the one hand, we may perceive this as the artist’s creativity and desire to please/entertain. On the other hand, we may also see the artist challenging our hasty presumptions to anticipate and interpret the artist’s intent. 9
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The duality of ‘outside’ and ‘inside’ brings to mind Daoist ideas of the empty vessel, something encompassing nothing is its raison d’etre. Is emptiness ‘nothing’? Is nothing ‘something’? There are various concepts in Japanese aesthetics that might be considered relevant here: ma 間 mu 無and yohaku 余白. Used with reference to art, architecture, philosophy and other genres, each in some way refers to ideas of space, of the void, of transcendence. Inherent are both duality and non-duality, or the merging of dualities - is the void the merging or union of all things, where matter disappears? Is the void ‘contained’ in something like Lao Tsu’s ‘empty vessel’, Hatakeyama’s ‘contained vessel’? Yohaku, for example, literally ‘remaining white’, is often referred to in English translation as ‘negative space’, that absence of decoration found in the asymmetrical placement of much in Japanese art, and observable in Hatakeyama’s landscapes. ‘Negative’ suggests ‘minus’, something missing. There is an alternative interpretation that encourages a fuller understanding, an understanding that the missing is actually present – this is the idea of yohaku as ‘margin’: A margin for interpretation, for individual response an interaction and imaginative experience that is gifted by the artist. An invitation to experience, to discover, has been extended by the artist. Is not then the box, the lidded vessel, a perfect embodiment of ‘yohaku’, the perfect invitation to discover, to experience the fleeting moment of sensory delight in that discovery?
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KOJI HATAKEYAMA
KOJI HATAKEYAMA b.1956 SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 1990 Maronie Gallery Kyoto 1991 Matsuya Gallery Tokyo (’89) 1998 Galerie Pousse Tokyo Living Design Center Ozone, Tokyo 1999 Gallery Naufu Gifu 2000 Miharudo Gallery Tokyo & Gallery Plannet Nagoya 2003 Gallery Sano Shizuoka 2004 Seikado Gallery Kyoto 2005 Takashimaya Tokyo Kyoto Osaka Nanohana Odawara (’01) 2006 Gallery Kai Tokyo Kogen Nagoya (’03,’01) Arai Atelier Gallery Tokyo (’03,’01) 2007 Gallery Totaku Nagoya, Gallery Now Toyama (’04,’02,’00,’95,’91) 2008 Takashimaya Gallery X Tokyo Kandori Tokyo (’06,’04,’02) 2009 Kochukyo Tokyo Gallery Nishikawa Kyoto (’07,’05,’03,’01,’99) 2012 Galerie Petit Bois Osaka (’09,’04,’01) Gallery Kochukyo Tokyo(’07) 2013 Exhibition Space Tokyo (’02,’10) Gallery Shibunkaku Kyoto (’11) Ippodo Gallery Tokyo 2014 The Scottish Gallery Edinburgh UK (’09, ’11) Aso Bijutsu Tokyo 2015 Erskine Hall & Co London UK 2016 Lesley Kehoe Galleries Melbourne Australia PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Victoria & Albert Museum London UK Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery Birmingham UK Philadelphia Museum of Art Philadelphia USA National Museums Scotland Edinburgh UK Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum Aberdeen UK The Ashmolean Museum Oxford UK National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne Australia Museo de Arte Moderno Bouenos Aires Argentina Denmark Royal Family Copenhagen Denmark National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo Japan 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa Japan The Japan Foundation Tokyo Japan Takaoka City Museum Toyama Japan Musee Tomo Tokyo Japan Rakusuite Museum Toyama Japan MOA Museum Atami Japan Shiseido Art House Kakegawa Japan
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Ten Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
18.5 x 19.5 x 18 cms
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14
Eight Faces
2013
Cast Bronze
22 x 21 x 24 cms
KOJI HATAKEYAMA
15
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Eight Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
17.5 x 16.5 x 40 cms
KOJI HATAKEYAMA
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KOJI HATAKEYAMA
Eight Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
28 x 15 x 22 cms
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Eight Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
20 x 10 x 20.5 cms
KOJI HATAKEYAMA
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Eight Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
13.5 x 12 x 16 cms
Six Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
10.5 x 9 x 15 cms
KOJI HATAKEYAMA
23
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24
Eight Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
12 x 12 x 14.5 cms
EIght Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
15 x 15 x 17.5 cms
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Six Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
29 x 14 x 22.5 cms
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Eight Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
21 x 12 x 22 cms
KOJI HATAKEYAMA
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30
Eight Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
15 x 15 x 18 cms
Six Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
15 x 11 x 16 cms
KOJI HATAKEYAMA
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Eight Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
11 x 10.5 x 17 cms
Eight Faces
2014
Cast Bronze
6.5 x 6.5 x 6.5 cms
KOJI HATAKEYAMA
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Six Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
21 x 11 x 21 cms
KOJI HATAKEYAMA
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Eight Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
15 x 10.5 x 14 cms
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Six Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
11 x 7 x 7 cms
Ten Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
7.5 x 6.5 x 6 cms
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Eight Faces
2013
Cast Bronze
7 x 6.5 x 5.5 cms
Six Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
11 x 8.5 x 8.5 cms
KOJI HATAKEYAMA
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Eight Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
10.5 x 7.5 x 7.5 cms
KOJI HATAKEYAMA
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Eight Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
7.5 x 6 x 7 cms
Ten Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
9 x 8.5 x 8 cms
KOJI HATAKEYAMA
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Eight Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
11 x 9.5 x 8 cms
Eight Faces
2015
Cast Bronze
11 x 11 x 11 cms
KOJI HATAKEYAMA
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畠 山 耕 治
EXHIBITION LIST
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03 TEN FACES
EIGHT FACES
2015
2015
Cast Bronze
Cast Bronze
18.5 x 19.5 x 18 cms
17.5 x 16.5 x 40 cms
02
50
04
EIGHT FACES
EIGHT FACES
2013
2015
Cast Bronze
Cast Bronze
22 x 21 x 24 cms
28 x 15 x 22 cms
KOJI HATAKEYAMA
05
07
EIGHT FACES
SIX FACES
2015
2015
Cast Bronze
Cast Bronze
20 x 10 x 20.5 cms
10.5 x 9 x 15 cms
06
08
EIGHT FACES
EIGHT FACES
2015
2015
Cast Bronze
Cast Bronze
13.5 x 12 x 16 cms
12 x 12 x 14.5 cms
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09
11 EIGHT FACES
EIGHT FACES
2015
2015
Cast Bronze
Cast Bronze
15 x 15 x 17.5 cms
21 x 12 x 22 cms
10
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12
SIX FACES
EIGHT FACES
2015
2015
Cast Bronze
Cast Bronze
29 x 14 x 22.5 cms
15 x 15 x 18 cms
KOJI HATAKEYAMA
13
15
SIX FACES
EIGHT FACES
2015
2014
Cast Bronze
Cast Bronze
15 x 11 x 16 cms
6.5 x 6.5 x 6.5 cms
14
16
EIGHT FACES
SIX FACES
2015
2015
Cast Bronze
Cast Bronze
11 x 10.5 x 17 cms
21 x 11 x 21 cms
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17
19 EIGHT FACES
TEN FACES
2015
2015
Cast Bronze
Cast Bronze
15 x 10.5 x 14 cms
7.5 x 6.5 x 6 cms
18
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20
SIX FACES
EIGHT FACES
2015
2013
Cast Bronze
Cast Bronze
11 x 7 x 7 cms
7 x 6.5 x 5.5 cms
KOJI HATAKEYAMA
21
23
SIX FACES
EIGHT FACES
2015
2015
Cast Bronze
Cast Bronze
11 x 8.5 x 8.5 cms
7.5 x 6 x 7 cms
22
24
EIGHT FACES
TEN FACES
2015
2015
Cast Bronze
Cast Bronze
10.5 x 7.5 x 7.5 cms
9 x 8.5 x 8 cms
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25 EIGHT FACES 2015 Cast Bronze 11 x 9.5 x 8 cms
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EIGHT FACES 2015 Cast Bronze 11 x 11 x 11 cms
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LESLEY KEHOE GALLERIES
GROUND FLOOR 101 COLLINS ST MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA TUESDAY ~ FRIDAY 11AM – 5PM
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