Panel Discussion

Comments on the Jurors’ Special Prizes Winners (seven works)(1/7)

NATSUME(MC) ───── We will now move to the Jurors’ Special Prizes. The Nagatoshi OHNISHI Prize goes to Yohko TODA for Hitoni-awamu Tsukinonakiniwa Omoiokite Munehashirihini Kokoroyakeori; Steel Scrap, Jet-Black Umbilical Cord Brass Scrap, Gold Furnace Steel Scrap, Silver Lotus Throne Brass Scrap. Professor OHNISHI, we would be honored to hear your comments.

OHNISHI ───── If you look closely, you will see that this work is composed of many parts. It feels as if the forms of nature have been successfully incorporated and have found a definitive place within the piece.

NATSUME(MC) ───── Thank you, Professor OHNISHI. We will now have comments from Professor TANAKA, who was a student of Professor OHNISHI during his time at the Tokyo University of the Arts.

TANAKA ───── As this is Professor OHNISHI’s prize, I have been asked to provide a brief explanation. I am sure everyone would rather hear Professor OHNISHI’s own words, but I will do my best.

I have known Ms TODA’s work for some time; she trained under Professor OHNISHI at the GANSEN Urushi Studio, and I had the impression she made many works with organic forms, but this series was new to me. Her intent was to bring metal scrap up onto thetokonoma (alcove). Although she uses the word “scrap,” she has found beauty in familiar materials that have lost their original function. This perspective of finding beauty in discarded things is seen across various materials today, and she is creating from a different viewpoint than her previous works. She also mentions that applying lacquer transforms an object, allowing it to be reborn as something else.

Lacquer has been used as an adhesive since the Jomon period, andkintsugi is a prime example of this.Kintsugi is very popular now, reflecting a global trend towards nature and a circular, regenerative society. From a similar perspective, she has attempted to regenerate familiar scrap metal by applying lacquer. Skillfully crafted characters are applied inraden (mother-of-pearl). To be honest, the character expression felt to me like a mere pattern, and I didn’t quite grasp the necessity of the decoration, the relationship between the aged metal and theraden script. However, her perspective of trying to find beauty and expression through the regeneration of scrap with lacquer was very interesting.

I hope Professor OHNISHI will pardon me if my views happen to differ from his, but that was my impression. It was a compelling and attractive work.