Taizo Kuroda: White Porcelain, Design Miami/Basel 2008

June 02, 2008 - June 05, 2008

In 2008, Yoshii Gallery participated in Design Miami Basel showcasing 41 new works created specifically for the art fair by Taizo Kuroda accompanied by a booth designed by Tadao Ando.

About Taizo Kuroda’s White Porcelain

Reflecting on his ability to seize that precise moment and freeze it for eternity, Kuroda’s white porcelain is about much more than what might simply be described as “bowl” or “vase”. When the clay is on the potter’s wheel and turned very slowly, it is subjected to centrifugal force driving it away from the center but also to gravitational force pushing it in from the outside. Kuroda senses the exact moment when the two forces reach a point of equilibrium, and working within this fragment of time locked within the material, he expands the nothingness from the center outwards, drawing this moment out into something eternal. Defined by the relationship between the void inside the object and the material outside defining it, the completed work seems poised perfectly between existence and non-existence. Kuroda’s white porcelain is always a masterpiece of balance.

About Tadao Ando’s installation design

Tadao Ando who has garnered international acclaim for spatial designs such as his “Church of Light” and various international museums designed a remarkable space to showcase Kuroda’s work. The booth included a sprawling water-table display measuring 540 x 950 x 4cm, containing over 420 kilograms of small, white and beige river stones and at least 650 kilograms of water, creating a sight to behold. Ando’s display is an exacting compliment to Taizo Kuroda’s elegant and simplistic porcelain work. Kuroda’s porcelains were held mere centimeters above the water by thin, unobstructive pedestals made of plexi-glass.

Taizo Kuroda’s ‘pure white’ is the colour of his spirit that never stops in pursuit of the truth.

– Tadao Ando