For more information info@studio-pots.com	Harlequin Gallery
Aki Moriuchi A solo exhibition of new sculptural, textured stoneware. 5th to 26th November 2006
Examples of work included in the exhibition : -
Big Seed Form with dark green 2006. Height: 35.0cm (13.75”) Diameter: 27.0cm (10.6”) SOLD	Grooved pot with gorse yellow 2006. Height: 19.0cm (7.5”) Diameter: 20.0cm (7.9”) SOLD
Moon Catcher 2006. Length: 64.0cm (25.2”) SOLD
Click on image for large version		Click on image for large version
For images of more work in the exhibition please click here
Aki Moriuchi returns to the Harlequin Gallery with a brand new body of ceramic forms that she has been working on for over a year in her Cornish studio. I know that before her first Harlequin Gallery exhibition two years ago, Aki was concerned that her work didn’t fit the gallery “house style” and therefore would not be appreciated by visitors or, worse still, visitors wouldn’t even turn up to the exhibition. In the event she need not have worried as the Private View proved to be the best selling solo artist’s Private View up to that point and work continued to sell throughout the exhibition. Soon after that her work was shown at SOFA in Chicago and then early in 2005 and 2006 items were exhibited at Collect held in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Other than these outings and a small exhibition in North Yorkshire last year, Aki has concentrated on making the new body of work for this exhibition, with visits to the semi-arid regions of the USA in between. It is easy to assume that living in Cornwall just outside of St. Ives that the landscape that has inspired numerous artists over the years must also be a major influence on her work. Long before moving to Cornwall in 2002, Aki had become fascinated by Native North Americans and their world so the mesas and buttes of the Badlands of Dakota remain her influence rather than the coastline of West Penwith. A truly individual artist, Aki makes objects that she “has to make” and hopes that we might like them as well. As she says, “Over the years I have been brought into the landscape of stones, both physically and spiritually. I have followed the trails through the plains, mountains and deserts and have seen how time and the elements weather the surface of stones. I imagine what kind of life these stones have led on their journey that had begun without my knowledge. It is this essence of time, contained inside the stones that I am trying to capture in my work. I want my work to contain certain imaginative space and ambiguity.” Having grown up in Japan, Aki tells me that she has always made things and certainly would have been more aware of ceramics than I would have been here in the UK during the 1950s and 1960s. However, it wasn’t until after she settled in this country in 1971 that she began to make pottery at evening classes, which led to further training at Harrow College and Middlesex University. Initially she made tableware based on traditional Japanese forms but gradually this was replaced by the textural and sculptural work that has become her trademark. Surprisingly to some, the majority of this work is thrown on the wheel and then altered and assembled. Often many layers of multiple glazes are then applied and the whole thing is fired to stoneware temperature, usually more than once. To complete her speeded up weathering technique she will sandblast the surface to varying degrees until achieving the effect that she desires. The work that she will be showing at the Harlequin will range from small tactile pots to elongated “tree forms”, such as the one on the front of this newsletter. This evolved from her memory of a leafless thin pine tree that she happened upon when climbing a mountain during a visit to the States last year. Like all of Aki’s work I believe it shows her almost instinctive perception of space. Aki has announced that she will be retiring and this will be her last ever solo exhibition.
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