Panel Discussion

Comments on the Jurors’ Special Prizes Winners (seven works)(5/7)

NATSUME(MC) ───── Next, the Nobuyuki TANAKA Prize:Yoru-ga-saku (Night Blooms) by Moe KATO. Professor TANAKA, what were your comments and impressions of this particular piece?

TANAKA ───── Ms Moe KATO has, I believe, received an award at this exhibition before. She is an artist who is currently working steadily and is well-regarded. She lives in Okayama Prefecture and has long used animals as a motif. While many young people today across various genres use animals or insects as motifs, they are still relatively rare in lacquer. In that sense, she is a creator with true ability, possessing certain powers of expression and form. I would like to read her words regarding the work again: “At first glance, it is black. But if you look intently, the night unravels, and the spots of a leopard cub slowly emerge like flowers. I layered the lacquer to capture that sensation of one’s eyes adjusting to the deep night in the mountains, where colors gradually increase.”

With a work like this, it is first about what one feels looking at the piece itself, but reading the comments, the words truly convey how she lives and creates daily in a nature-rich environment, facing both herself and the material. I awarded this prize as a sign of support for her thoughts and the work.

I would like to add one point of critique, however. She creates a clay prototype, makes a plaster mold, and then creates the body in kanshitsu (dry lacquer). She skillfully expresses the leopard’s face, eyes, and fur through a combination of foundation layers, lacquer surfaces, and polished areas. She always shows an effective contrast between beautiful lacquer surfaces and textured areas like fur or the foundation layer. While this is a hallmark of her expression, I felt that this particular work could have used a bit more ingenuity. Having seen her other works, I felt the balance between the coated and non-coated areas was becoming somewhat formulaic. I think there is room for more variation. As a fellow creator, I know that once a certain expression is praised, there is a tendency to continue making similar works, leading to a kind of self-copying. To deepen her work further, I hope she will continue at her own pace without worrying about trends or her surroundings. Assessing by the work and her comments, I feel she is a fine artist.

NATSUME(MC) ───── Thank you, Professor TANAKA.