Isohi Setsuko

ISOHI SE T SUKO

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Forest Path, 2021, 10.25 × 20 × 8 inches

ISO HI SE T SUKO In 2010, Isohi Setsuko won the Best of Show Award at the Japan Traditional Craft Arts Association annual exhibition. Association members include the most eminent masters of ceramics, metal work, lacquer, textiles, woodworking, doll making, and bamboo art. In the sixty- one years prior to 2010, only five bamboo artists had ever won this ultimate prize. In the world of Japanese craft art, Isohi would have been considered ver y young at forty- six, and she had only been a member in full standing in the organization for five years. Her win was a well- deserved but happy surprise.

Isohi’s pace of development from beginning student at a weekend basket making class to award winner was rapid enough to prove that both her talent and dedication were top level. By 2009, a little over a decade since she began to cut and weave bamboo, Isohi’s signature style was fully present: proportions and shapes are modern and sophisticated; handles are rare; and the color palette is dominated by her signature claret. Light flickers through almost everything Isohi makes.

Throughout her artistic career, Isohi has returned again and again to two forms — the offering tray with multi- layered plaiting and the wide, low boat shaped flower basket featuring line construction. Over the last decade, she has refined and expanded upon these forms like a composer writing a “Theme and Variations” suite.

Most recently, the boat shape has manifested as the brilliant, open- cornered Forest Path, completed earlier this year. When viewed frontally,the profile is a familiar one from Isohi, but it is a surprise from any other angle, opening and closing with movement. My eyes cannot help but follow two strips of bamboo that playfully wind their way up the artwork’s sloping sides.

Isohi’s trays tend to possess an elegantly shaped base, plaited in layered patterns of varying degrees of transparency, finished with a modern feeling rim.

Her trays are clearly members of a family, related but individual. A high point of this exhibition for me is seeing so many of her trays together, creating a sustained orchestral delight.

A Mirror Held to the Flower is the start of something new. A floriform outer wall

Glow, 2015, 13.25 × 10.25 × 10.25 inches

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of bundled bamboo dramatically spreads out, culminating in a lacy, net -like rim. The use of radial split, bundled bamboo is a nod to her mentor and Living National Treasure, Katsushiro Soho, but it displays Isohi’s characteristic lightness of touch. It is her first use of this technique in a major work. Nestled inside the outer wall, the floor of the tray is made of clematis plaiting with yet another layer of slightly darker, perfectly placed bamboo strips that are lashed into place with rattan to form a subtle pattern of large triangles. From most angles the rattan-work pattern is the more prominent, but if backlit, the curving lines of bundled bamboo show through from underneath and create an effect similar to looking at a rose window from inside a darkened Gothic cathedral.

Generally speaking, Isohi’s works emphasize the plasticity and transformability that is one of bamboo’s advantages as an art medium. But when she uses susutake, she creates forms that highlight the strength and inherent beauty of the centuries-old, smoked bamboo. One such work, Sunlight on Furrows, has a dyed red underlayer that Isohi allows to peek through, adding a spark to the otherwise deceptively simple square plaiting. Underneath, inventive but hidden feet raise the tray to create a floating appearance and an unexpected play of light within the shadow.

Isohi’s rattan work has always been fine and precise and is now taking on a more important visual role. Maki- ami, a rattan wrapping technique, is used profusely in Flower Raft, A Mirror Held to the Flower, Set of Five Clematispatterned Trays, and completely covers the surface of her amazing Blooming Garden, a box form that I feel is a masterpiece. Two layers of bamboo strips encase a third, woven layer. Lighter and darker colored rattan winds through the layers, binding them tightly and creating fugitive patterns that shift depending on the light and angle of view. Equally enticing is the irresistible and luxuriant surface texture, and once the box is opened, a beautiful ikat pattern of dyed bamboo is revealed.

After not quite twenty-five years of working with bamboo, Isohi’s increasing mastery and creativity make us dizzy at the thought of what she will accomplish over the next twenty-five years. n Steven Halvorsen

Mountain Peak, 2019, 16.25 × 13 × 4.25 inches

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Water’s Edge, 2017, 9 × 15 × 14.5 inches

A RTIST STAT E MEN T It has been twenty - five years since I started my career in this field. I am happy to be able to have a solo exhibition at TAI Modern in this milestone year.

It all started for me with a class led by Yagisawa Tadashi. I studied there for five years and enjoyed it very much. As the months went by, I was getting more and more into it. I didn’t start out with the intention of making a career out of it... But I loved it so much; it suited me so well; and it was so rewarding. I felt that bamboo art was my calling, and my desire to become a professional artist grew stronger.

I was not sure I would be able to make it in the male - dominated world of bamboo art, particularly since I had learned in a classroom and not through formal training, but I decided to spare no effort and learn from all directions.

To be recognized as an artist, I thought, I would have to present good works that transcended gender. I thus decided to create works that were unique to me and continue to do so today.

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I was blessed to have senior artists around me from whom I was able to learn. It was also fortuitous that I was able to participate in the two training sessions led by Hayakawa Shokosai V (2006 to 2007) and by Katsushiro Soho (2017 to 2018), which were organized by the Agency for Cultural Affairs for the purpose of passing down knowledge in this art form. These were very meaningful experiences for me.

To pay them my respect, in this solo show, I decided to include works that feature the arrow - pattern technique I learned from Hayakawa - sensei and the masawari (radial splitting of bamboo) technique I learned from Katsushiro sensei. To use these techniques as my own, I integrated them into my own original expression.

My goal is to create works of art that have strength and give people a sense of excitement and joy. The first thing I do is think of a design for my work. Most of my inspiration comes from nature, and sometimes from architecture as well. Then, I consider whether or not I can create such a design using techniques that I have learned or that already exist. It almost always leads me to many trials and errors. I am the type of person who grows by hitting a wall. So, in this process of trial and error, new ideas are born and come to my mind. I also pay a great deal of attention to form, color, and texture.

I think deeply about what to name my works. Sometimes I think of the perfect title right away. Other times I carefully consider if a name is appropriate for the work. In this, I have been influenced by Iizuka Rokansai, an artist whom I respect. The impressive way in which he selected the perfect name for each of his artworks led me to realize the importance of titles.

I am the person I am today because of what I have learned from my predecessors and senior artists. I will never forget my original intention and will continue to pursue my love of bamboo art. I also wish to help future generations. This wonderful art must continue. I now feel the need to act for that greater purpose as well. n Isohi Setsuko Blooming Garden, 2019, 5.75 × 12.5 × 6.5 inches

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Blooming Garden, 2019, 5.75 × 12.5 × 6.5 inches

The Sun, 2018, 4.75 × 16.25 × 16.25 inches

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Flower Raft, 2017, 3 × 14.75 × 12.75 inches

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Sunlight on Furrows, 2020, 3.75 × 19 × 10.5 inches

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Moon Reflected on the Surface of a Lake, 2010, 4 × 16 × 16 inches

Waxing Moon, 2017, 18 × 13 × 11 inches

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High Mountain, 2019, 14 × 16 × 8.75 inches

Kouka, 2013, 8.5 × 20.5 × 9.5 inches

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Home Place, 2019, 4.25 × 14.25 × 14.25 inches

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Nature’s Blessing, 2016, 3 × 14.75 × 14.75 inches

A Mirror Held to the Flower, 2020, 4.25 × 16.75 × 16.75 inches (two views)

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Rich Harvest, 2015, 4.75 × 19 × 12.75 inches

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Set of Five Clematis-patterned Trays, 2018

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1.25 × 5.75 × 5.75 inches