joseph scissorhands: Contemporary Bamboo: Masters From Japan

Morigami Jin - Musuo (Peerless), 2015

"Bamboo is beautiful. I listen to it. It says many things to me. I enjoy my conversations with it. " - Yamaguchi Ryuun, Bamboo Master.

An exquisitely presented exhibition of functional bamboo vessels and sculpture by Japanese makers this, presented under the guise of craft, but quite rightly being recognised in the title of the exhibition (and a wider audience in the art market), as masterly examples of art. Although enchanted and distracted by the amazing examples of naturally created Gogottes in the downstairs galleries of Eskenazi Ltd in my last post, it was being guided to ascend the stairs by the knowledgeable and personable Eskenazi staff to the upper galleries that I was able to access these incredible deliberately ceated contemporary examples of bamboo craft by eight Japanese artists. The forms presented ranged from completely abstract, art-sculptural creations, to modern functional interpretations of ikebana flower baskets for tea ceremonies. Japanese bamboo weaving was traditionally viewed as a purely practical medium to produce tools and utensils for domestic use. Bamboo as the source material is harvested, processed, spliced and dyed before being woven into elaborate shapes. It is a craft steeped in centuries of tradition that requires decades of devotion, being passed down between generations within families who have honed their techniques to become masters. As the complexity and craftsmanship of these woven objects has become recognised in the West, bamboo weaving is losing its purely utilitarian role and modern practitioners have branched out and are using the medium to express their creativity and versatility in new ways, turning to abstraction to create new forms and techniques that produce pieces more akin to sculpture. The Eskenazi Gallery was previously unknown to me, but I recognised in some of these pieces similar highly sculptural/mathematical models used to create the fantastic forms on display here as being very similar to the mathematical models in the Science Museum which informed the early midcentury sculptures of Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Naum Gabo, the basis of of my Aeolus series. Each piece on display was highly covetable for different reasons, and created with a particular aesthetic intelligence and sensitivity to materials. Not surprisingly most exhibits here had sold before the exhibition had even opened. It was a real privilege to observe the delicacy and skill of the creation of these exhibited items before they disappear into private collections. The skill and execution of these objects gave me pause to think about my own practice as a creator, and actually made me question and want to raise my game in terms of technique. This exhibition and that of my previous post made me realise that you should always continue to look outside of your own practice (given the time and inclination), to the work of other makers/creators and their disciplines for continued inspiration to create your best work.