Kazuhito Kawai
Ceramicist
Ibaraki, Japan
An incessant game of trial and error
- Kazuhito builds ceramic sculptures that explore colour, texture and memory
- He tests glaze colours for months before building the sculpture with clay
- He discovered ceramics by chance in his thirties after training in painting and installations
Kazuhito Kawai was born in Ibaraki Prefecture, a region with a long history in ceramic production. He studied contemporary art at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London, developing a practice in installation and painting rather than in clay. After graduating, Kazuhito worked for several years in Tokyo before returning, almost by chance, to his hometown of Kasama in his early thirties to join a local programme aimed at nurturing future ceramicists. The programme shifted unexpectedly towards developing an artistic practice, and Kazuhito approached clay as he had once approached art, starting from concept. "Clay resisted control, refusing to hold the colours and forms I intended to create," he says. Several years of testing followed, and from that friction between intention and material, a personal language slowly took shape for him as a maker.
INTERVIEW
I usually decide the theme's colour before I decide on the shape. Since glaze only reveals its true colour after firing, I make many test pieces first, adjusting the mix again and again, before I even start building the clay form, layer by layer.
I grew up reading fashion magazines and watching runway shows, drawn to designers like John Galliano and Comme des Garçons. Their freedom of form stayed with me long after, and it led me toward contemporary art before I ever touched clay.
My mind moves quickly and restlessly, but clay is slow. At first that gap frustrated me badly, I wanted to make everything at once. Over time it became something closer to enjoyment, like time travel between old notebooks of thought.
After a show ends and I calm down, I often notice what the finished piece could not show, in other words the quiet sense of dialogue between me and the work while it was still forming. I am now trying to find ways to express that in-between moment itself.
Kazuhito Kawai
Ceramicist
Ibaraki, Japan
ADDRESS
Address upon request, Ibaraki, Japan
AVAILABILITY
By appointment only
LANGUAGES
Japanese
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