For Japanese-born ceramicist Kaori Tatebayashi, connecting to nature isn’t just a way of offsetting the pace of city life, it’s an essential process of her sculptural work, which renders vegetables, fruits and flowers in ultra-lifelike clay compositions.
At her flat in a converted Victorian building in Forest Hill, south-east London, which she lives in with her husband, Tatebayashi talks to us about the joys of living near so many parks; why memories of her grandparents’ countryside home is still a fruitful source of inspiration; and how she transformed her communal front garden into a verdant urban scene.
Kaori Tatebayashi: “I grew up in Kyoto but was born in the village of Arita and visited my grandparents there every summer for a month. My mum liked moving a lot, but my grandparents house has always been the same, in that very remote, beautiful village. So, I kind of associate home with that place, in nature. I think the memory of it really influences me when Im making my work, even the tableware seen here.
“My family trade pottery in Japan, where we have a long tradition of functional tableware for eating and tea ceremonies that I associated with ceramics for a long time. When I was studying, I was always thinking, ‘Ok, but what else can clay do? or, ‘What else could a ceramic piece be?’
“When I went to study ceramics the Sōdeisha movement, led by Yagi Kazuo and established in the mid 20th century, was still prevalent. They started to make ceramics that resembled sculpture, but it was still very earthy, and they were using traditional firing, so it still had the feel of, not tableware, but it wasnt quite sculpture – something in between. In Japan, we called it objects ceramics.
“I went to an exhibition organised by Crafts Council, which toured from London to Japan and featured many sculptural ceramics. For me, it was like a revolution. And the finishes of the pieces werent shiny or heavily glazed, and I thought this was the finish I wanted to do, and that it would fit with what I wanted to make. I came to study in London as an exchange student and then I came back in 2000, and have lived here ever since.
“My husband and I were renting in St John’s Wood before and we couldn’t afford to buy there, so we came to visit a friend in this area and really liked it, plus my studio is in Camberwell, so not far away.
“We liked this flat immediately. Although it wasn’t the biggest we’d seen, it had a nice feel with its original staircase and arched top windows – we thought it was very charming.
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发表于 2020-8-4 01:40:42
