Clay container for mummified newspapers
Sculpture
1991 (made)
1991 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
Nishimura Yohei is is an artist whose primary concern is less with clay than with the process of firing and the way in which it affects different kinds of objects and materials. He interprets yakimono, the Japanese term for 'ceramics', in the broader and more literal sense of 'burned things'. Given his use of metal, stone, wood, paper and other substances, often without the inclusion of clay, his position in the world of Japanese ceramics is somewhat anomalous. The interests he has pursued since graduating as a student of sculpture from Tokyo University of Education have led some critics to call him a conceptual rather than a ceramic artist. He is, nevertheless, closely involved in the use of clay as a result of teaching ceramics at a school for visually impaired children in Chiba Prefecture to the east of Tokyo.
By subjecting everyday articles to the heat of the kiln Nishimura transfigures them into strange, other-worldly objects that play on our perceptions of time and physical reality. Much of his recent work revolves around the firing of books, newspapers and magazines so that they are rendered into fossil-like objects whose essential structures remain but whose meanings, embodies in the words and images they bear, have been largely or totally obliterated.
By subjecting everyday articles to the heat of the kiln Nishimura transfigures them into strange, other-worldly objects that play on our perceptions of time and physical reality. Much of his recent work revolves around the firing of books, newspapers and magazines so that they are rendered into fossil-like objects whose essential structures remain but whose meanings, embodies in the words and images they bear, have been largely or totally obliterated.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Title | Clay container for mummified newspapers (assigned by artist) |
Materials and techniques | Carbon-impregnated earthenware and fired newspaper |
Brief description | 'Clay container for mummified newspapers', sculpture by Nishimura Yohei, Japan, 1990-91. |
Physical description | Egg-shaped vessel of black earthenware with a roll of burnt newspaper protruding from the opening |
Dimensions |
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Style | |
Production | made in Yotsukaido |
Summary | Nishimura Yohei is is an artist whose primary concern is less with clay than with the process of firing and the way in which it affects different kinds of objects and materials. He interprets yakimono, the Japanese term for 'ceramics', in the broader and more literal sense of 'burned things'. Given his use of metal, stone, wood, paper and other substances, often without the inclusion of clay, his position in the world of Japanese ceramics is somewhat anomalous. The interests he has pursued since graduating as a student of sculpture from Tokyo University of Education have led some critics to call him a conceptual rather than a ceramic artist. He is, nevertheless, closely involved in the use of clay as a result of teaching ceramics at a school for visually impaired children in Chiba Prefecture to the east of Tokyo. By subjecting everyday articles to the heat of the kiln Nishimura transfigures them into strange, other-worldly objects that play on our perceptions of time and physical reality. Much of his recent work revolves around the firing of books, newspapers and magazines so that they are rendered into fossil-like objects whose essential structures remain but whose meanings, embodies in the words and images they bear, have been largely or totally obliterated. |
Collection | |
Accession number | FE.562-1992 |
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Record created | June 12, 2009 |
Record URL |
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