Light and shadow. Whether natural or artificial, we see them every day. While we speak about their physics, they frequently move us psychologically. We are often completely unconscious of them. Nonetheless, if we pay attention to them, we forget the passing of time. Light rescues us from primitive fears and represents our hopes for wealth and the ideal. It is also likely that a subconscious fascination with shadows and reading the moods they conceal, as in Tanizaki’s In Praise of Shadows, is a familiar aspect of」apanese aesthetics.
This exhibition is an experiment in exploring from many angles how crafts use light and shadow and gradations between them in pursuit of beauty. Crafts draw out the richness of material in forms in which complexity and rationality overlap. We might say, then, that crafts are the perfect stage for the play of light and shadow. When we hold these familiar but untouchable phenomena in our hands and bring them close to us, we savor pleasures that only craft provides.
This summer, please join us in enjoying the contrast and harmony of light and shadow.