At Bunsei University of Art and Design, Ms. Shuri Usami is teaching students the knowledge and techniques of pottery while working hard on her own artwork. She received her first Honorable Mention and Excellence Award at the 10th Kikuchi Biennale, which aims to promote contemporary ceramics. What is Ms. Usami’s progress and the future she sees for herself?
Teaching pottery at a local art college
The private Bunsei University of Arts is located in a calm environment along the Nikko Kaido Road leading to Nikko, a short distance from the bustling center of Utsunomiya City. As an associate professor of design at this university, Ms. Shuri Usami teaches the history and techniques of “pottery” in the field of crafts.
While teaching students, she also creates her own works of art in the university’s facilities. She is one of the first ceramic artists whose work was selected for the Kikuchi Biennale, where she won the Excellence Award, and her future activities and works are highly anticipated.
I love clay. Became a ceramic artist from college.
Mr. Usami was born in Utsunomiya City, Tochigi Prefecture. After graduating from an art college, his father, Seiji Usami, worked as an industrial designer for Sharp Corporation. After retirement, he began to make ceramics, holding solo exhibitions and winning various prizes, and his father, Seiji, was also selected for the Kikuchi Biennale, where his daughter Shuri won the Excellence Award.
Growing up under such a father, she was aware of the possibility of attending an art university from childhood. When he was considering whether to leave the prefecture or stay in his hometown, Bunsei University of Art and Design opened in his hometown. The reputation of having good teachers attracted him, and he decided to go there.
Although he did not know much about ceramics, he chose it because “I liked clay and three-dimensional things, so I thought it would be more fun, even though I knew nothing about it. While some of his classmates were heirs to kiln owners, he was new to many things. He fired all kinds of things to experience “what it is like to fire in a kiln,” and even fired bottles and money.
Independence, a long-cherished dream
She then went on to graduate school at the same university, and after graduation she traveled abroad before working as an assistant professor at the university.
She left her position once when she became pregnant and gave birth, but during that time she continued to help Kaku Hayashi, a local ceramic artist and professor emeritus at the same university, and never left the “clay.
In 2018, when his father Seiji opened a studio in his home, he decided to set up on his own. While working as a part-time teacher at a private junior high school and high school in the prefecture, he started creating his own artwork in his home studio with his father. Three years later, he was hired as a lecturer at Bunsei University of Art and Design, and moved his production base to the same university.
With the necessary facilities in place, he seemed to be off to a good start as a ceramic artist.
I don’t have anything that I can say is my work.”
At that time, Usami’s style often featured curved forms that gave a sense of softness and the use of pale, bright colors such as blue and yellow. These works received recognition at several public exhibitions, including the Encouragement Award at the “3rd Mori no Miyako Craft Exhibition” and the DCM Homac Award at the “48th Hokkaido Ceramic Art Exhibition.
However, Mr. Usami himself continued to be troubled.
He said of his work at the time, “I thought this could be expressed without ‘pottery. Some people commented on his works at the time, saying, “You don’t have to use ‘yakimono’ to express yourself.
She spent her days asking herself, “What do I want to express? A complex of “I don’t have anything that I can say is my work” swirled in my mind.
A new frontier reached after a period of suffering
He was worried that his work was not convincing, and he was also impatient to get results as soon as possible. On the other hand, when he looked outside of himself, he saw the harsh reality of war and other hardships in the world. ……
As both a ceramic artist and a teacher of students, Usami began to have feelings akin to grief, wondering “What can I do in such a world,” “What can I teach children,” and “How can I express myself?
However, it was this suffering that led her to a new style of artwork, which she named “Towa.
All the absurdity and tragedy of the world are put into the work
Towa” is approximately 51 cm tall and 44 cm wide, and has the form of a large, massive cylinder. The bottom of the piece is decorated with a design that looks like a series of overlapping rings, and the unique color and texture of the glaze applied over and over is also a characteristic feature of this piece.
The large cylindrical shape was chosen because of its large surface area, and various types of glazes were applied with a roller to create a unique coloring. The overlapping rings at the bottom are designed to create shadows that cannot be expressed by the surface alone.
The name of the work, “Towa,” is a pun on the Chinese character for “earth ring,” which symbolizes “the world in which the lives of people and things travel through the circle of time via the earth. The idea behind the name “Towa” is that people cannot live apart from the earth because they return to the earth after death,” he says.
As he struggled with his own style, Usami was struck by the harsh world situation of war and other life-and-death situations, as well as the young students living in the future before his eyes. Although Usami does not say so explicitly, it seems to me that the source of the “life” and “life and death” reflected in his works is the fact that he kept confronting these issues.
It was not only human beings that Usami confronted with life and death.
He found “beauty” in dead trees, dead coral, and other weathered and decaying objects. He was inspired not only by organic materials, but also by inorganic industrial products such as screws and cans.
This is not a cheerful work,” Usami said.
However, it is a work of human emotion, respect for human life and weathered objects, and the use of clay to express these feelings. It is precisely because this work embodies Usami’s sincere and painstaking efforts that it has become a work that will leave a strong impression on those who see it.
Awarded at the “Kikuchi Biennale” to explore the possibilities of contemporary ceramic art
Towa” won the Excellence Award at the 2023 Kikuchi Biennale. Although the artist had applied for the prize in the past, this is the first time he has won a prize.
The Kikuchi Biennale is an open competition held every other year since 2004 by the Kikuchi Kanjitsu Memorial Tomo Art Museum in Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo. A wide variety of high-level works are gathered from all over Japan, and the styles and techniques of the works vary widely. The works are judged not only on their traditional techniques, but also on their future potential for innovation and creativity, and are highly sought after as a venue for discovering the next generation of artists.
The exhibition attracts many collectors and art professionals from all over Japan, and catching their attention is a chance to gain connections with new galleries and museums and expand opportunities for their activities. It is no exaggeration to say that the Kikuchi Biennale serves as a gateway to success for many ceramic artists.
Now is the starting line. The road to your dream is just beginning.
Towa” also won the Encouragement Prize at the 11th Ceramic Art Exhibition organized by the Japan Ceramic Art Association.
Usami commented on these awards, “I feel as if I was told that it was okay, and that I had someone’s back. I feel like I have finally made it to the starting line,” said Usami.
He says that he is still in the trial-and-error stage of creating his next work, “Right now, I’m still told that it’s just luck, so I want to make sure that people say I have the ability.
In the future, he would like to present his works overseas.
He says, “Right now, there are so many things I want to do and so many things I have to do that I’m not sure where to start. I’m at the stage where I don’t know where to start,” he says with a shy smile, but his future is full of hope. Since choosing to become a potter, Usami has continued to face the “clay,” and has sublimated the beauty and pain of this world, as well as her own thoughts and feelings, into her work. We cannot take our eyes off her future activities.
