Just for reference, the second illustration is a small section of calligraphy by Yanagida Taiun from his rendition of the HAN SHAN poem. This shoga is as lyrical, animated and yes poetic as any I have ever seen and I am certain I am not the only person to have been influenced by the encounter with his work.
Monday, July 12, 2021
LEVELS OF INFLUENCE
Back
in 1984, I was fortunate to see a wonderful Japanese calligraphy exhibition
entitled; WORDS IN MOTION; Modern
Japanese Calligraphy. At the time I was just out of college and profoundly
interested in ink, clay and steel and as such this exhibition really opened my
eyes to the modern calligraphy tradition in Japan. In the exhibition there was
several pieces of calligraphy that I was captivated with as well as the poem
that it represented, the calligrapher was Yanagida Taiun and the poem was HAN
SHAN (Cold Mountain, both a place and an enigmatic poet). At the time I was
unaware of the profound affect and levels of influence that the lyrical and
highly animated calligraphy would have on me but over the years it constantly
makes its way back in to the decoration of my work. This stoneware teabowl is one the first
times that I have used the influences of Yanagida's calligraphy in slip
trailing but thought to give it a try using black slip as a backdrop and white
slip trailed over as decoration I think it certainly has movement and character
for a first attempt. Once bisque I used a thin wash of my saffron iron over a
clear glaze to give the piece a soft droozy appearance as if the surface is
moving and melting. I rarely title my work but thought that this reminds me of
late winter, early spring and decided to call it; "Waiting For The Ice To
Melt" and in the end I suspect there are hints of Yanagida and even Michael
Cardew that one can spot in the bowls origins if you care to look hard enough.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment