Tomokazu Oshita, Chief Curator, Hokkaido Hakodate Museum of Art

 

 

It is said that Takashi Takamura's decision to pursue the path of ceramics was the result of selecting and utilizing various materials to express his own world. Subsequently, the technique of "ceramics" led the artist to a new form of expression. By skillfully employing traditional Momoyama pottery techniques such as Oribe and Shino, he has brought forth an image of an ancient forest.

The masses resemble the trunk of a large, cut-down tree. Their surfaces exhibit complex expressions, such as undulations, roughness, cracks, and the presence of new protrusions. They evoke the holes in aged trees, the layers of bark, and suggest a sense of eternal time, while simultaneously giving a feeling of new vitality sprouting toward the future. His artistic world thus expands across the past, the present, and the future.

The artist uses a sculptural method of carving out from the mass, rapidly giving shape to his vision. This is supported by the sense of volume created by the powerful forms liberated from the vessel, the substantial texture of the clay, and the certain plasticity resulting from meticulous care. In this process, one feels that the traditional techniques of Oribe and Shino, much like the image of the artworks themselves, are connected to the future.

The artist, who has long been away from his hometown and continued his artistic activities, is now presenting his work for the first time in his native Hakodate. We hope you will fully appreciate, up close, his rich artistic world where past and future, tradition and innovation, and meticulousness and dynamism coexist.

(Tomokazu Oshita, Chief Curator, Hokkaido Hakodate Museum of Art)