YUGEN Gallery will hold Gentaro Yokoyama's solo exhibition "Runaway Tea Bowl" from Saturday, February 25th to Thursday, March 2nd, 2023.

Perverted pottery that protrudes from “use and beauty”

Ceramic artist Gentaro Yokoyama takes subjects that go beyond the framework of crafts, such as women's underwear and breasts, and incorporates "movement" such as the rotation of a potter's wheel and the burning fire in a kiln. Through ceramic art, things that were thought to be incompatible collide and transform values.

Born in Chiba Prefecture in 1978. Currently, I am working at my atelier <gent ceramics> in Tokyo. Yokoyama's encounter with ceramics was an extracurricular activity at a high school in Vermont, USA, where he studied abroad. "I was able to handle the potter's wheel well from the beginning, and I was praised by many people and came to like it."

Use and beauty that have been talked about in pottery/crafts. Yokoyama says he learned in America that there is a different world between them. Yokoyama freely changes techniques, materials, and concepts as if to fluctuate between them. "Movement" is the theme of his production style, where he sometimes fires materials other than clay. I pursue pottery as a dynamic medium.

“Why do I never get tired of looking at the bonfire and the waves? The pottery itself does not move, so I am thinking about how I can evoke dynamic emotions through the pottery. It's beautiful and charming.

"Tear", "crack" and "drip" such as cracks and dripping glaze. Although there are things that capture the moment of movement in ceramics, Yokoyama chooses things that look like an amoeba that seems to start moving at any moment, underwear and breasts that seem to convey body heat and softness as motifs, and expresses the metamorphosis of ceramics. I will try.

On the other hand, what characterizes Yokoyama is his editorial sense that is not bound by the common sense of traditional crafts. "It's impossible for us who live in the modern age to make things from scratch. The real thing about creativity is how you can add and subtract to create something new." express. Jack crafts to pop.

Representing the "gathering" of motorcycle gangs in the tea ceremony

The tea ceremony and the motorcycle gangs will be edited for this exhibition, “Berserker Bowl”. Empathizing with the spirit of hospitality of the tea ceremony, Yokoyama worked on the production of tea utensils, and as a member of the art group <The TEA-ROOM>, has explored the possibilities of Japanese comprehensive art "tea ceremony". This time, the runaway tribe that is caught in one of the Japanese culture is crossed there.

Tea bowls with a shape reminiscent of long-necked hairstyles and "modifications" of ready-made Kutani porcelain. When lifted from the fixtures, the sound of motorcycles and the shouts of motorcycle gangs will be heard, and when all the tea bowls are lifted, a “meeting” will begin.

For Yokoyama, who has a unique and charming style, it has never been possible to incorporate aggressive elements. The encounter with the work of artist Hironari Kubota (*) was the trigger for this exhibition, which attempts to transform himself. When Yokoyama began to feel that his own creative activities had become “conventional,” he saw Kubota’s performance of rotating a car at high speed in the air, and was inspired by a dynamic expression that he did not have. This time, 5 tea bowls and 3 objects, totaling 8 pieces, will bring an uplifting feeling that is incompatible with pottery.

Carrying people's feelings, the road leads to beauty

“I wonder if I can sublimate what seems to be violent into ceramic art and make it a form of entertainment.

A community where procedures progress in intense human relationships. It is not an inferiority complex or desperation, but an act that disturbs the atmosphere that surrounds society as a whole. Only attraction because of risk rather than resistance to authority. It's no surprise that Yokoyama's pursuit of pure pursuit of it is on the same wavelength as Yokoyama, who has been thinking about the gap between crafts and art. It can also be seen as being on the same track as the skateboard that Yokoyama has been doing since he was a child.

“Sometimes I feel that the city is designed to exclude skaters, and the challenge of overcoming such restrictions is art itself. I don't get it, but I think there's beauty in things that put people's feelings into it."

The tea ceremony and the runaway have something in common in the pursuit of the way. The vessel carries people's feelings, and the road flows. To the point where two roads intersect, full throttle of beauty euphoria.

* Hironari Kubota: He has been involved in projects that have caused controversy both in Japan and overseas, such as performances inspired by indigenous festivals that remain in each region and collection of "root stones" that are likened to penises.