作家：十河隆史
題名：モノノスガタ
素材：土、砂、モノたち

Artist: Takashi Sogo
Title: Shapes of Beings
Material: Soil, sand and various “beings”

土を窯で焼く「陶芸」は「炎」の力なくしては成り立ちません。陶芸家としての私の普段の制作は炎の力を借りて土を「やきもの」にする、いわば炎によって無から有を生み出す作業です。しかし、その一方で炎は地球上の多くのものを灰にする、言い換えれば有を無へ還す力を持っています。今回、私は普段の制作とは対極にある、これら人や自然が創りあげたモノ・「有」を炎の力を借りて「無」に還す試みを行ってみました。
これらのモノたちはかつてそれぞれが役目を持ち、身近にあったモノばかりです。1200℃の熱を経て物質に還るモノのありのままのスガタ。美醜を超えた現実。有と無の狭間に見える「何か」・・・どちらにしても炎の力がなくては出来ない作品である事に変わりありません。

In ceramic art, flame is essential for the firing of clay in a kiln. As a ceramic artist my usual works consist of using flame to transform earth into earthenware; a creation of “beings” out of “nothing” by means of flame. The flame however has the property of destruction also; reducing things to ashes, in other words bringing beings to naught. Here I attempted a method utterly contrary to that of my usual – using flame to turn man’s or nature’s creations, such “beings”, into nothing.
Each of these beings once had a purpose and was around us. At the temperature of 1200℃ they restored the forms of their original matters. The reality beyond the appearances, that “something” that can only be observed in between a being and nothing…All the same, these works could not have been created without the energy of flame.