I found my object in the Colors Across Asia exhibition; I was drawn to it because of its high concentration of ceramic pieces. I was immediately interested in Object, created by Japanese artist Nagae Shigekazu. It appears to be a sheet of delicately folded white paper, but is in fact created out of clay. Based upon the white, translucent nature of the object, I would say that it is porcelain. The use of porcelain makes it appear light and effortless. Also, since porcelain is lighter in weight than stoneware it would be able to stay structurally sound and the likelihood of it breaking because of strain on the edges of the piece is lower. Object is covered in a clear glaze, adding to the lightness of the porcelain. It is incredibly clean and white. This is a contemporary piece of art; it was created in 1992. It does not appear to have any functional purpose so I conclude that this was made for aesthetics.
Object appears to be created by a single slab of porcelain. There is no evidence of any additions and it is perfectly the same thickness throughout. Running down the center of the object is a single crease line, mimicking a fold in a piece of paper that is later reopened. The edges have a slight flick at the end adding to the weightlessness and delicacy. The underside of the object is completely open and smooth.
Since I don’t think that this could have been created as a free standing structure while still in the wet clay stage, I think that there was once a cylindrical object in the middle acting as the support while the artist shaped the clay. Because the piece has a flat top, it also suggests that it was shaped on something that was cylindrical.
There is a subtly of pattern only on the top surface of the object. It is a variety of dots arranged in a grid like pattern. The dots are varying sizes. These dots a very slightly raised above the flat surface. Because of how perfectly spaced and aligned the dots are I would think that they were made with a premade pattern. The patterns are overlapped and appear to have been put in a random order. The pattern could be made by pressing something into the clay that allowed for raised dots or if the artist used slip and a pointer tool to manually create the dots. Because each pattern is contained within similar square shapes that overlap other patterns, I am again inclined to think that it was made with a pre-made pattern tool.
It reminds me of a piece of paper used in origami; a folded square with a crease in it. I also probably made that assumption because the artist is Japanese and Japan is associated with origami. It also reminds me of an unfolded table cloth, the fold as a result of the cloth being held in storage. I am interested about the name of piece, “Object”. It’s a simple, nondescript name for a delicately folded piece of porcelain, perhaps because a white, clean, folded sheet can be in reference to many ideas. Or the name could be in reference to an object that once existed under the space of the porcelain. With this in mind, it could be reminiscent of the object that was once there. The name, and the negative space in the object, allows for an open interpretation of the piece.
