Artist Statement: Exploring Makoto Hatori's Artistic Works and Philosophy
Subtopic 1: "The Aesthetics of Non-Glaze: My Unique Approach to Ceramics"
I delve into my distinctive artistic approach, focusing on my exploration of non-glazed ceramics. My artistry lies in the application of traditional ceramic intelligence to reveal the inherent beauty of non-glazed surfaces (or beauty by nature's design). I examine how my work challenges conventional notions of ceramic art by highlighting the raw textures, earthy colors, and organic forms that emerge through my non-glazing process. By celebrating the natural characteristics of clay, my creations evoke a sense of simplicity, purity, and harmony in the world around us. Through this subtopic, I aim to unravel the philosophy behind my decision to forgo glazing, exploring the visual, tactile, and conceptual dimensions that define my unique approach to ceramics.
Subtopic 2: "Unveiling My Creative Mind"
We embark on a journey to unravel my creative mind, gaining insights into the inspiration, influences, and artistic philosophy that shape my ceramic art. We delve into the depths of my thought process, seeking to understand the underlying concepts, emotions, and ideas that fuel my artistic expressions. Through anecdotes and analysis of my works, we uncover the sources of inspiration that inform my creations, whether it be the natural world, Japanese aesthetics, or personal experiences. By exploring the motivations behind my artistic choices, we gain a deeper appreciation of the meaning and significance embedded within my ceramic art. Ultimately, this subtopic seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of my creative process and the unique vision I bring to the world of ceramics.
I, Makoto Hatori, apprenticed under a master potter of traditional ceramics in 1970 and 1974 to learn Japanese ceramics (in which design without human intervention and supreme artificial beauty co-exist) as well as the mechanism of natural glaze (what I call “non-glaze,” or beauty by nature’s design). Twelve thousand years ago, the Jōmon doki (Jōmon-era ceramics) was invented, with the historic, ancient kilns that beat with the inner nature of the people. What I gained from that pursuit was the teaching to connote nature, the spiritual other, and to recognize my own presence. Of course, this revelation was gained later on, in retrospect. Since the time of my training, I have repeatedly worked to recognize the coexistence of subject and other, following the natural flow of “as it is” at every opportunity. To be “mui-shizen,” or “as it is,” is to be awakened to the wide-spreading blank space of externality, the perception of the unmade outer world. The banquet of that holy natural glaze, which sublimates the impure, was a gift from nature that allowed me to make strides in my act of firing, the performance with nature, from the known to the unknown. I feel a “bashfulness”―an aesthetic―towards the uncorrelated input and output of incidents, discord between the body and mind, and I have related the connotations of “as it is,” what lies at the heart of the unknown, to my professional ethics. I was stirred by the vague and undefinable unknown, which is an empty seat that ought to contain something, indicating that my existence is not independent of relativity.
In the 1969 exhibition “L’espoir: Makoto Hatori” at the Surugadai Gallery in Tokyo, I had already exhibited sculptural works that refer to externality. My works in the show used materials such as wood, cloth, and plaster, and I also used sand as a material representing anti-self-containment. My works were not autonomous objects, but by using sand, which defies the regulations of co-embodiment, they became events that disrupt the equilibrium. This was an invitation to the unknown, the external, and a search for an undifferentiated formation. I do not have within me the historicity of philosophy derived from tradition. I was seeing modern perspectives on nature, values, and the principle of making and questioning such historical viewpoints through the perspective of nature found in traditional non-glazed pottery. Valuing spirituality and meditating on a shared identity with nature was how my entire self was baptized in that fire. This was not something new to me―a gesture that led the way to being “as it is.” My works based on traditional techniques, which were acquired by the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1993 and the British Museum in 1996, are built on this professional ethic and aesthetic.
Left: "Phase" Three semicircular vessels, each filled with different amounts of sand. Right: "Relation" A cloth bag filled with sand is placed in a crisscross pattern on a cylindrical shape made of plaster. Thus, the exhibition featured abstract works made of plaster, wood, cloth (canvas), and sand. Makoto Hatori's intention was to express a "state" of expanding physicality through "sand," a material that causes accidental displacement. The idea of the state of physicality and materiality behind this work continues to exist in my work. The solo exhibition "L'espoir: Makoto Hatori" was held at the former Surugadai Gallery in Kanda, Tokyo, in 1969. "Exploring Chaos and Certainty"
Left: "Bizen-style Faceted Mizu-sashi," 19.5 centimeters in height, wood-fired stoneware with natural wood ash, fire change, traditional way fired at 1280 degrees C., eight-day firing. Right: "Ring," 33.0 centimeters in height, stoneware and slip painting, traditional way fired at 1300 degrees C., oxidation, eight-day firing. Both works were exhibited in the exhibition 'Makoto Hatori' at the former Lee Gallery, London, June 15 to 27, 1993, and were acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, UK, 1993.
Left: "Bizen-style Wide-mouthed Bulbous," (w) 21.0, (d) 21.0, (h) 31.0 cm, wood-fired stoneware with natural wood ash, fire change, traditional way fired at 1280 degrees C., eight-day firing. Right: "Bizen-style Cylindrical Lidded Pottery Mizu-sashi," (w) 19.0, (d) 19.0, (h) 17.0 cm, thrown and altered stoneware with natural wood ash, sesame seed-fired decoration, Bizen traditional way fired at 1300 degrees C. oxidation, eight-day firing. Both of the works, included in the collection of the British Museum (U.K.) in 1996. It is also featured in Amedeo Salamoni's "Wood-Fired Ceramics: 100 Contemporary Artists," with a foreword by Jack Troy (Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 2014), pp. 90–91.
I repeatedly deform the concentric circles that correct the "form" formed by the potter’s wheel, in an attempt to acquire flexible "material." The next process, traditional firing, which may be understood as a device beyond our power, causes yohen (accidental coloring or glazing by flame) that produces a natural wood-ash glaze, a gift from nature, on the fired ceramic. It is the destruction of the "neatness" (form) created by nature. Instead of adhering to itsuki, or the immobile and stagnant state of being a "completed form," I have come to accept this work and its atypical aesthetic as an alternative variant (which is also an involuntary "occurrence").
For me, as an artist, examples of such variants include the discerning eye of the wabi-sabi practice that simultaneously conforms to and defies aesthetic legitimacy, its representation of heterogeneity and heteromorphic forms, and the concept of kuruimono―the stylized eccentric persona that was deemed an aesthetic refinement―enacted by dancers and entertainers in Japan, who characterized the ideas of basara (ostentatious behavior) and kabuki (out-of-the-ordinary behavior) developed in the medieval and early modern periods, respectively. This atypical aesthetic is understood here as “kata (form),” one of the key concepts of the Japanese traditional ceramics discourse. For him, kata is a “work” with utility, completed by an action dictated by traditional standards.
I believe that the created object as a system is doomed to acquire some kind of expressiveness, which is what he calls itsuki. I don’t see this as completion in an unambiguous and fundamental sense, and instead, I abandon my identity as the subject performing alterations and "creations." This can be seen as an overwriting of the concept of "material" by considering the "work" as a "ready-made product"―a transformation in perspective on those that have been created. The ready-made, created by assemblage and combinations, stands as an expression of an action to be taken―that is, transformation into a dynamic entity. Aesthetic factors composed by an assemblage are full of infinite possibilities and embrace unknown effects. Here, the self-contained nature of creation transforms into an involuntary occurrence and "shifts" into a state of openness that encompasses the object to be seen as well as the viewer. It does not, however, mean that such creations are recreated. This "shift" is expressed in such a way that it illuminates the possibilities of spurring diverse perspectives.
In my work, the aim is not to create "kata (form)" but to present a "raw state" in which the work is transformed into an open physicality―an ambivalent, bodily image that sees and is seen simultaneously. I refer to this as "contact improvisation," which involves not just viewing the performed dance but also instantly giving form to the body by performing and enacting the physical characteristics of diverse others. By creating such an encounter between myself and others, my presence is inscribed into the work. The basis of my work is the expressive value of the object in itself, which is "remembered" and in motion.
Originating from “kata (型, model),” “kata (形, form)” comes and goes ceaselessly between the two homonyms “カタ, kata.” In traditional Japanese arts (geido), where arts and moral philosophy merge to form a circle, kata (型, model) functions as an ambivalent bodily image that involves interiority and exteriority. The "model" kata exists as an immutable and unshakable being that constantly changes at the same time each time its homophone, “kata (形, form),” is enacted as a visual event.
Above: "Vessel: Otherness," as a whole of the installation (w) 76.0, (d) 27.0, (h) 20.0 cm, wheel-thrown, stoneware with natural glaze, fire change, traditional way fired at 1260 degrees C., in reduction. The work was exhibited at the 4th International Triennial of Silicate Arts in Hungary at the Kecskemét Cultural and Conference Centre from August 3 to September 7, 2014.
Next, I would like to ignore chronology to mention my installation works "Water Ripples" and "5-7-5", which were shown at the International Ceramics Symposium in Lithuania in 1996 and 1998, respectively. These works rejected colors or glaze, joined natural wood and fired ceramics, and are a structuralization of how bilateral relationships are formed by external effects that are not objectified. Similarly, the works exhibited in the 2001, 2003,2015, 2017, and 2019 <on the web> International Ceramic Biennial, in South Korea were works that were awakened to the perceptions generated by the resonance between ceramics and other materials and between ceramics and ceramics. I have written about how self-contained representations merely become objects, lacking physicality, in my essay "Beauty of Soul, Beauty of Form: Naturally-glazed Ceramics and Haiku" (The Log Book, Issue 22, 2005, pp. 3–7).
Left: "On the Impulse of Curiosity," (w) 99.0, (d) 39.0, (h) 44.0 cm, stoneware and slip painting, with aluminum cable additions, traditional way fired at 1250 degrees C., oxidation, eight-day firing. The 1st World Ceramic Biennial 2001. Exhibited at the World Ceramic Center, Ichon, Korea, August 10 to October 28, 2001. Right: "Barley Field," (w) 102.0, (d) 16.5, (h) 38.5 cm, stoneware and slip painting, traditional way fired at 1250 degrees C., oxidation, eight-day firing. World Ceramic Biennial 2003. Exhibited at the Ichon World Ceramic Center, South Korea, September 1 to October 30, 2003.
Left: "Mizu no Hamon: Water Ripples," consists of stoneware (non-glazed with slip,) with wood additions, and a sprayed solution of salt, fired in a gas kiln at 1380 degrees C., over two days in an oxidized atmosphere. The piece in the back "Mu," also made at the 1996 Panevezys International Ceramic Symposium in Lithuania, exhibited at the Panevezys Civic Art Gallery from August 2 to October 6, 1996. Right: “5-7-5,” approximately 170 cm in hight, created at the 1988 Panevezis International Ceramics Symposium and exhibited at the Panevezis Civic Art Museum from July 31 to October 4, 1998. This work is featured in Emanuel Cooper's book Contemporary Ceramics (Thames & Hudson, 2009) and isalso used as a resource for ceramics education in the UK.
For my work exhibited in the 35th International Ceramic Competition L’Alcora, "Non-color," I considered the color white as a thing that expresses the ambiguity of both co- embodiment and decolorization, of the discrepancy of my mind and body that lies within, as the expression of the unwavering unknown, which I call "非色 (non-color)." I based my idea of "self" on this. By layering "white" on myself, I sought to cleanse my mind and transform myself (rewrite notions). White is the color of the gods in the religion of our people (though the masses have turned their tastes from religion to entertainment) and contains the ambiguity of wholeheartedness and supreme ecstasy, as well as life and death (the tradition of white as a color of mourning comes from the larger continent and peninsula of Asia). If that is not an explanation but a presentation of an opened state of being that contains externality, I thought I should use a physical technique that renders the relationship between ceramics and other materials as physical components.
Left: "Non color," as a whole of the installation (w) 95.0, (d) 53.0, (h) 9.0 cm, stoneware (non-glazed with slip,) with aluminum board, the electric kiln and charcoal smoked, fired at 1250 degrees C., reduction; exhibited at the Ceramic Museum of L'Alcora, Spain, June 26 to September 6, 2015. Right: "Non color; Otherness," as a whole of the installation (w) 122.0, (d) 75.0, (h) 13.5 cm, stoneware (non-glazed with slip,) assembled through thin iron road, with silicon tube, electric kiln and charcoal smoked, fired at 1250 degrees C., reduction; exhibited at the 8th Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennial 2017, Republic of Korea, Icheon World Ceramic Center 263, Gyeongchung-daero 2697 beongil, Icheon, Republic of Korea, 17379, Gyeonggi-si, April 22 to October 9, 2017.
The answer was in the unquantifiable act of drawing (a physical discipline). Human bodies are an ambiguous existence in the first place, a physical existence equipped with both internal and external components. Mutual interactions between oneself and others are established because it is possible to relate to the external, and this happening is generated simultaneously. The work entitled “State” relates the otherness or externality of its physical state as a living phenomenon of that corresponding relationship. For instance, the iron of the non-ceramic material with diversity and versatility that transcends perception after numerous repetitions of bending and stretching stops being iron, and through this continuous change, its flexible condition forms a living co-embodiment with ceramics. The non-autonomous condition of incidents is to continuously change its synchronization with the other, the “paper” (the act of drawing) itself, thrown in without any context.
Left: "A State (02-31-2)" as a whole installation: (w) 142.0, (d) 70.0, (h) 15.0 cm. objects (ceramic, iron): (w) 105.0, (d) 58.0, (h) 15.0 cm, 2 sheets of paper (drawing) each (h) 31.0, (w) 24.0 cm. Hand-built Stoneware (non-glazed, high fire), with iron bar. Electric kiln and charcoal smoked, fired at 1250 degrees C. in reduction. The 4th Cluj International Ceramic Biennial, Exhibited at Cluj Museum of Art, Romania, August 15 to September 20, 2019.
Makoto Hatori 99 Figure Drawings
The act of drawing, which involves the movement of my body, is a practice of encountering the unpredictability of the relationship between the viewer and the viewed. The work "A State" or "The State of Being" is composed of the paper (drawing) on which he draws, and explaining it may risk making it seem like a gimmick. This is because an arbitrary element is introduced, and the relationship between different elements is disrupted. When viewed through the lens of physicality, various materials are inherently different, and fragmented phenomena go beyond my intentions. It must be a third-party presence and not a decoration of the subject ceramic.
In 2020, a pandemic descended upon us. Our preexisting notions of subject and object collapsed, and we were confronted with the unforeseeable. Seeking to reaffirm the presence of the subject and object as a unified whole, I looked to traditional sumi-e/suiboku-ga (ink-wash painting) in Japan. "By employing brush lines to embody the physicality of my mind and body, I consider this 'Physicality' series to be an intellectual suiboku-ga (traditional landscape painting in water ink) in the realm of ceramic art." To the traditions that need to be retraced.
Left: "Physicality: 墨絵 Sumi-e/ 水墨山水 Suiboku Sansui (07-03-2)," (w) 107.0, (d) 51.0, (h) 14.5 cm, stoneware, non-glazed (the pieces have textures of lusterless tones, such as a Japanese paper tone), pigment, with iron rod. Electric kiln and charcoal smoked, fired at 1250 degrees C. in reduction. The Contest of Unique Piece N.A.CE. 2021. XIII National Fair of Pottery and Ceramics, NAVARRETE · La Rioja, Spain, July 16 to 18, 2021. The piece remained on display until August 30, 2021.
As an artist, I believe that ceramic art is rooted in the earth, and although clay is usually considered a mere base material in ceramic art, the clay itself exists in its own right as the concept and motif of my work. By exploring the materiality of the medium and attempting to grasp its essence, he extends this traditional art form into contemporary art. By choosing not to apply glazes and thus rejecting artificial aesthetic enhancement, I contemplate the object’s inner essence. In this way, my work becomes conceptual art and seeks to transcend the so-called autotelism often associated with ceramics (the notion that a ceramic object becomes a work of art through the process of firing and is an end in itself, often lacking a conceptual framework).
As already mentioned, my theme "non-color" is my aesthetic, which aims to realize the ultimate of the traditional natural glaze (non-glaze) way of thinking of Japan and to construct works that express the memory and continuous change of the body itself through the control of its expressive consciousness. The material itself, put together in a common body, plays an important role in its embodiment. The unglazed "ceramic," with its washi-like texture and milky white surface, symbolizes the spiritual world, while the non-ceramic material that will eventually decay symbolizes the imperfect perceptual world. All things are in flux, in an endless cycle of life, death, and rebirth. This constant transformation shows the existence of "things." There, I superimpose my existence.
