Sometime Fountain (2016)

Working with clay, wood and other materials, Nao Mastsunaga makes sculpture imbued with a primal spirit. Its potency derives from a sense of the special, of objects beyond the everyday, charged with power. Cultural reference points are diverse, reflecting his Anglo-Japanese experience as well as a partnomadic practice based around international residencies, ranging from Arizona to Norway. His working processes respond directly to the material in hand. Often methodical and repetitive, these allow space for the subconscious to come into play, and for the material itself to guide the outcome.

Matsunaga is fascinated by working with clay; its ability to capture movement and, in a sense, time. After kiln firing, the marks made on the soft clay become permanent. At the time of making Sometime Fountain, Matsunaga was exploring a new method he calls ‘mattress glazing’. He makes a thick slab of glaze and allows it to melt over the clay sculpture during firing. Mattress glazing allowed him to capture the movement of the glaze and gravity at work.

Matsunaga says of this work: ‘primal themes such as gravity, movement, time and weight have been central to my artistic practice. This piece in particular references the history of ceramics with its use of blue and white glaze and oxides.’ In this way, Sometime Fountain speaks to a wide range of ceramics in the Shipley Art Gallery collection. It will sit alongside sculptural ceramics by Angus Suttie and Alison Britton as well as historic glazed ceramics and a more recent commission using blue and white printing by Paul Scott.

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