Artist of the day: Artist of the Day, July 15, 2022: Nagae Shigekazu, a Japanese Porcelain artist (#1622)

Friday, July 15, 2022

Artist of the Day, July 15, 2022: Nagae Shigekazu, a Japanese Porcelain artist (#1622)

Nagae Shigekazu (1953), is one of the leading pioneers of porcelain casting and firing techniques in Japan. Casting is commonly associated with the mass production of porcelain, yet Nagae valiantly transcends this stereotype, ultimately elevating this technique to the avant-garde. Casting alone cannot achieve the natural movements found within Nagae’s forms. In fact, the intensity of his gas-kiln fires help mould, shape and curve his delicate white porcelain, thereby giving birth to sleek and razor-thin silhouettes that have become Nagae trademarks.

His popularity and recognition as an artist have skyrocketed, with acquisitions by the V&A in London, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Australia in just the past 3 years. Also collected by leading institutions such as the Musée National de Ceramique-Sèvres in Paris and the Musée Ariana in Geneva, among others, as well as receiving prestigious awards such as the Grand Prixs at the 1998 Triennale de la Porcelain in Nyon, the Mino Ceramic Festival and the Japan Ceramic Art Exhibition (both 1997), Nagae’s stature and respect in the world of porcelain has reached new heights.

Nagae’s latest works, his first since 2005, test the limits of his ingenious porcelain casting techniques, and are the culmination of his extensive experiments and research into the qualities of both clay and fire. Called Tsuranari no Katachi (Forms in Succession), they are essentially porcelain objects that contain individually casted porcelain shapes that are attached together. After each separate shape is slip-casted through a bisque-firing, they are combined by glazing the joints and suspending the work in mid-air within Nagae’s kiln. As the glaze melts and crystalises in the kiln fires, the pieces are successfully attached. Yet at the same time, the luscious draping and tapering of his organic curves are borne through “chance” natural kiln effects.

Techniques
Sometimes there are limitations on forms that one can make in a certain material. I’ve been researching a few different variations on how to manipulate clay. Obviously you have to the basic ones, pinching, on the wheel, slab building, but you can also experiment with Nerikomi, as an example, which is stitching coloured clay together to make different patterns. One area that I haven’t looked in to in much detail is slip casting, as it’s something you usually associate with the industrial side of ceramics. But here Japanese Artist Shigekazu Nagae has used this method to good effect, creating sculpture that’s both thin and structured.

He makes them by creating moulds from plaster, he then uses liquid porcelain which is mixed with sodium silicate to create a thin slip that pours easily in to the moulds. Interestingly, this technique was imported from Europe during the Meiji period, so it’s a fairly new process of experimentation in Japan and has become a speciality of the craftsmen in Seto City, Aichi Prefecture. Shigekazu then connects the different elements together and joins then to create flowing forms which curve slightly in the kiln, thanks to the melting properties of porcelain.

In a lot of ways these remind me of architectural forms, especially where Shigekazu has been able to overlap the layers. This is almost like two boundaries or outer shells of a building that are coming together. Aside from that you have the translucency of the porcelain which is also very attractive, creating a ghost like silhouette with sharp angles.

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