Contemporary plastic arts are extremely detached from "objects" as materials, and their loss of materiality is serious. When "things" as materials, which should firmly support forms, are adrift, it is nothing more than "plastic arts" in which only forms are floating. In other words, the disconnection between "object" and "form," the loss of a sense of materiality, is also the drifting away of the relationship between "thing" and "person. To recover its artistic mission from the tendency, especially in contemporary ceramics, to be dwelled on the decoration without looking at the object, it is necessary to confirm the will of handwork to the "object" as a material. The question is why do I need such materials?

1. http://www2r.biglobe.ne.jp/~makoto-h/
“Objects” as Materials
Makoto HATORI
Contemporary plastic arts are extremely detached from "objects" as materials, and their loss of
materiality is serious. When "things" as materials, which should firmly support forms, are adrift, it is
nothing more than "plastic arts" in which only forms are floating. In other words, the disconnection
between "object" and "form," the loss of a sense of materiality, is also the drifting away of the
relationship between "thing" and "person. To recover its artistic mission from the tendency, especially
in contemporary ceramics, to be dwelled on the decoration without looking at the object, it is
necessary to confirm the will of handwork to the "object" as a material. The question is why do I need
such materials?
Ceramics is truly an art rooted in the earth. Clay is the support of ceramics, but my work (the
material subject of clay) itself signifies the intelligence and motif of ceramics. The delicate sensitivity
and spirituality of traditional Japanese unglazed pottery (that is, natural glaze), which confirms the
presence of the material (clay) and the taste of the clay, is the starting point of the ceramic art I seek.
By choosing not to apply glazes, thus rejecting artificial aesthetic enhancement, I contemplate the
object’s inner essence. My aesthetic philosophy contemplates the inner essence of an object by
choosing not to glaze and rejecting artificial aesthetic enhancement. This avoids the so-called
autotelism that is common in ceramics (the idea that ceramics becomes a work of art by firing and is
an end in itself, often lacking a conceptual framework) and leads to pure art, which is also the
relationship between "paper" and "ink" in the traditional "brush and ink" the existence of the East.
One of the techniques is that the "paper" itself is part of the picture and is not subjectively inked as a
drawing technique. In this line of conceptual exploration, I consider the interaction between ‘ink’ and
‘paper’ and how they co-exist within my work; thinking of ‘paper’ as not only a support surface but
an integral part of the image and creating an image not through ‘glazing (ink)’, but rather by letting
the fired ‘objects’ interact with the support ‘clay (paper)’. The main reasons for this are also the
"acquisition of reality" through the abandonment of color and the "remarkable acquisition of fluid
physicality (events that are realized each time)," which is essential to artistic perception.
In addition, what is ultimately created (in this case, the fired material) acquires some sort of system
of expression_this is called 居 着 ituki " addition," an illusion of "adhesion (abandonment of
physicality)," which is nothing but retroactive. Therefore, I do not take this as a principal or
fundamental completion; I renounce my subjectivity, which leads to the action of modifying or
"creating." In this case, the "renunciation" is the overwriting of the concept of the material which

2. regards “self-contained” "(work)" by firing as a "ready-made," hence changing the perspective toward
the "work." As a result, the"material" (ready-made) which has developed into a concrete "form" is
released as an expression of the next action that I should take, as a dynamic and various
transformation of assemblage and combination, so that the "living dynamic body" reappears.
In a sense, aesthetic elements composed of diverse materials, such as assemblages, are full of endless
possibilities and unknown effects. These diverse and complex cooperative bodies will expand from
the integration of just creating to the viewpoints of the events, and the alteration or "transformation"
is made from the object to be seen to the open state including the viewer. It does not, however, mean
that such creations are recreated. This “shift” is expressed in such a way that illuminates the
possibilities of spurring diverse perspectives.
That is to say, this is all about presenting the "state" - the transformation of the works into open
physicality, and the simultaneous coexistence of what to see and be seen as an ambivalent physical
image. This can be metaphorically described as "contact improvisation," in which the performers act
out physical characteristics of various others and instantly position their bodies, rather than seeing
the dance as a mere "act." By dramatizing the encounter between the self and the others, one's
existence is engraved in the artworks.
These artworks with controlled consciousness of expression are constructed as one cooperative body
to express the memory of the body itself and the continuous transformation of the body. Here, the
non-ceramic materials combined to realize play an important role. Purified and reduced by fire, the
non-glaze "pottery" would have the texture of Japanese paper, its milky white surface would
symbolize the spiritual or spirit world, and the non-ceramic materials ("heterogenous form" does not
necessarily mean "non") would symbolize the world of imperfect perception. In this endless cycle of
life, death, and regeneration, everything is in a state of flux. This unbroken transformation indicates
the existence of a "thing." There, I superimpose my reality.