Mitsuo Shoji, internationally recognised Japanese Ceramist, exhibits at the Japan Foundation Gallery from 1 – 12 February 2010. Between Language and Form will feature 20 of Shoji’s latest ceramic pieces created using a grant received from the Australia Council for the Arts in 2008.

Shoji’s works are broad, ranging from functional design ware, as used in famous Japanese restaurants such as Tetsuya’s and Azuma, to sculptural objects and experimental work. His works are held in public collections in Italy, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Finland, Switzerland, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

In Between Language and Form Shoji focuses more on sculptural work. The ‘forms’ featured are inspired by the human body. This is particularly evident in works embodying a twist that resembles fluidity and movement, creating a measured balance of yin and yang. The surfaces are then treated with ‘language’, Buddhist chants he listens to or meditates over, that he scratches onto the surface. The markings are then filled with coloured clay slip, leaving a tattoo-like mark – an intricate and time-consuming process usually taking months to achieve a completed piece.

“To me, practicing ceramic artwork is like practicing Zen… When I see my clay work, I see the object itself as like my body and its surface is my skin or the outside of my soul… While I’m working on the surface treatments I feel free. I am travelling across the surface like I am travelling across the globe.”

The exhibition will also feature Shoji’s innovative ‘ceramic paintings’, a practice he developed by combining both ceramic and painting techniques. Using a blowtorch and kiln burner, a matt black surface is formed upon board. Gold and silver leaf are applied and burnt in, before crayon is finally added to colour the surface.

Shoji is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Sydney College of the Arts, where he lectured for thirty years, and has just returned from a five-week Artist-in-Residence program at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan.