by AZUSA Irizawa (b.1983)
Reiwa period, 2021
Dry lacquer, kanshitsu
2 pieces
Assembled 18 x 18 x 2 cm
Signed tomobako
Kyoto artist Azusa Irizawa belongs to a new generation of lacquer artists who have freed themselves from the traditional constraints of this medium through pushing the boundaries of the dry lacquer, kanshitsu, technique. Dry lacquer is a process by which layers of hemp, paper and lacquer are laid over a mould, allowing the creation of free-flowing shapes unlimited by the constraints of traditional ‘box’ construction.
Azusa is a 2018 graduate of the Kyoto Municipal Institute of Industrial Technology and Culture, where she recalls the guiding taught principle of first create the shape, then enhance that shape with decoration, as she learnt the traditional methods of lacquer decoration using makie and shell inlays. But she found herself increasingly questioning this approach.
Rather than, for instance, applying pieces of cut shell-inlay as decoration, thereby imposing the artist’s idea onto the surface of an allotted shape, she created pieces that incorporated the whole shell so that it became the shell itself that gave birth to the overall form. Her artworks were no longer a combination of two distinct components – the base and the decoration – but allowed the lacquer to become an extension of the architecture of the base material.
From here it was a short step towards allowing the structure and form of her work to be dictated by nature. Freed from the traditional roles of artist and materials, she set out to capture the gradual evolution of natural phenomena, particularly in the shape of the spiral – one of the basic constructs of the natural realm. As she observed, a fresh leaf or fern frond bursts out as a spiral, the layout of seeds in a sunflower forms a spiral, the wind blows in a spiral, and DNA is a spiral. Even our galaxy and the universe itself is a series of many thousands of spirals.
The three pieces shown in this catalogue are her latest work series poetically entitled Ten no Zo – Heaven’s Sculpture. They are inspired by the natural phenomenon of new life created through the unfurling of a spiral, and seek to capture the various expressions of the process. The technical demands of creating a perfectly true surface finish are considerable. These pieces go a step beyond the traditional, uniform highly polished, roiro, surface finish through the incorporation of textures and contrasting matt qualities. This allows a conversation between each side of the forms, maximising the effects of light reflections on pure form, and rejecting overt decoration. In addition, each work is formed of two pieces, which can be joined in a variety of ways.
“I am attempting to create forms which can interplay in various combinations, allowing the viewer to choose the path of the conversation to suit their feeling at that time”..
— Azusa Irizawa, 2021
Azusa received the Gifu Art Exhibition Award, Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu, 2019, and her work was also exhibited at Kyoto Art for Tomorrow, Museum of Kyoto, in 2019. In 2020 she received the Kyoto City Award for promising new artist, and Ten no Zo #1 was shown at the 75th Anniversary Exhibition of the Kyoto Kogei Association, Museum of Kyoto, 2021.