Dream—Suspended

source: yukinakamura

“The Dream project is a deeply personal work that

acknowledges the premature death of my brother at the age of 36. He was a soccer coach and lived his life in Shikoku Island, Japan. For many boys from my hometown, dreaming to become a professional soccer player is a way that they can escape small-town life. Hanging in the gallery are fragile porcelain soccer balls, all of which are at different stages of deflation. Each ball represents the dream of my brother as well as that of the younger boys from Shikoku.”

by gary owen

Hailing from a maritime town in rural Japan, Nakamura’s childhood was delineated by the seashore of her small island. On land she schooled, ate dinners with her family, grew tall with her brother. Beyond the lapping line of the sea was someplace else. Lines, boundaries and islands are recurring motifs in Nakamura’s ceramic sculpture, a way of investigating issues of place, provincialism and identity as shaped by nativity.

Nakamura left her idyllic setting to attend university in Tokyo, where she studied Ceramics. Leaving a rural childhood for the big city is a mind trip. Nakamura’s frame of reference broadened. While Nakamura chose to leave her isolated life on Shikoku, her brother, a soccer coach, chose to stay. Dream Suspended features 36 fragile porcelain soccer balls hanging from the ceiling, an elegy to his premature death at age 36.

The soccer balls in Dream Suspended relate formally to Nakamura’s interest in islands. The ball is like a little globe, and the stitching defines little islands on its surface. Drawing out this metaphor, a professional soccer career is the dream of escape for the young boys in Nakamura’s hometown, a way to move beyond the sea encircling their island, see the world. In Nakamura’s treatment, the soccer ball becomes a universal signifier of aspiration. Nakamura’s brother chose to stay behind to train young boys at soccer so that they might make it big. Nakamura mourned his death by making frequent trips home to observe a year-long Buddhist rite of mourning. Dream Suspended publicly celebrates her brother’s lifelong goal of encouraging children to pursue their dreams beyond the horizon.
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source: neoimagesnet

While Nakamura chose to leave her isolated life on Shikoku, her brother, a soccer coach, chose to stay. Hanging in the gallery are 36 fragile porcelain soccer balls, an elegy to his premature death at age 36. For many boys in Nakamura’s hometown, becoming a pro soccer player is the only perceived means of escape from small town life. The soccer ball acts as a universal symbol of hope and aspiration, and also as a little globe. Fragile like life, the balls will be dispersed throughout the world, each one traveling its course, uniting viewers and speaking across cultures. In “Suspended” Nakamura uses unglazed ceramic casts of soccer balls, all of which are at different stages of deflation. Neon-lit wires in various colors hold the balls at different heights above the floor, making for a uniquely visual experience. – Gary Owen
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source: neoimagesnet

Since moving from Shikoku Island, Japan to Seattle in 1995, I have been creating sculptural installations – with ceramic as my primary medium – that emphasize the relationship between concept, form and space. I create my work by pushing the envelope of ceramic medium and turning limitations upside down into new possibilities, as media for my own voice. My work challenges the aesthetic restraint of my traditional cultural roots through active experimentation with new media and contemporary issues: cross-cultural, multi-faceted contemporary sculptural forms that reflect and challenge our specific time, place, culture, and social environment. My work reflects how time and space change in synch with our constantly evolving environment. I consider both the macro and micro worlds and how they shift within the internal, human and subjective perspective, how they become increasingly confused, chaotic and full of turmoil. My work questions the tenuous connection between the two worlds; the internal subjective self and the external world of cultural façade.
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source: youmaga

昨年秋に行われた、毎年恒例の音楽イベント「バンバーシュート」では、THREADというアート総合会社とのコラボの一環として一風変わったファッション・ショーを開催。中村由紀さん自身が“Red Stair（赤い階段）”と題された作品を身にまとい、モデルとして参加しました。いつもアイディアに溢れていて、チャレンジ精神旺盛、次に何が飛び出すかわからない……。地元現代アーティストのコミュニティーの中でも、率先してプロジェクトをリードする、多面的な顔を持ち合わせた作家です。

香川県に生まれ、女子美術大学工芸科で陶芸を専攻。教授がニューオーリンズで開いた展覧会でアシスタントを務めたことをきっかけに、海外に出たいという気持ちが高まり、ワシントン大学院芸術科に入学します。大学院で陶芸を学び、卒業後はすぐにSOIL（ソイル：ギャラリーの企画・運営をする、20人ほどのアーティスト集団）のメンバーに。現在、SOILの過去10年間の歴史を盛り込んだ本の出版（2005年出版予定）に、リーダーとして取り組んでいる最中とか。
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source: artbeasties

I create sculptural installations with ceramics as my primary medium that explore a sense of place, relationship, identity and formal structure. My work challenges the aesthetic restraint of my traditional cultural roots through active experimentation with new media and contemporary issues: cross-cultural, multi-faceted contemporary sculptural forms that reflect and challenge our specific time, place, culture, and social environment. I consider both the macro and micro worlds and how they shift within the internal, human and subjective perspective, how they become increasingly confused, chaotic and full of turmoil. My work questions the tenuous connection between the two worlds; the internal subjective self and the external world of cultural façade.

Yuki Nakamura graduated from Joshibi University of Art and Design, Tokyo in 1994, and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from University of Washington in 1997. She has had solo exhibitions at Peeler Art Center, DePauw University in Greencastle, SOIL Gallery in Seattle and Howard House Contemporary Art in Seattle. Her multimedia collaborations have been featured at Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, Santa Fe International New Media Festival and Kittredge Gallery in Tacoma. Her work has been reviewed in international art magazines, such as Ceramics Monthly, Art in America, Whitewall and Sculpture Magazine. She has also been awarded numerous prestigious awards including the Pollock-Krasner Grant, Artist Trust Fellowship, and the Joshibi Creative and Research Fellowship. She has participated in multinational artist-in-residence programs in France, Italy, Japan and the US. Her work is part of the Tacoma Art Museum permanent collection, the Microsoft collection, and the Swedish Cancer Institute collection.