Christian Burchard
Basket 20", 2005
Madrone Burl
20 x 20 x 20 inches / 50.8 x 50.8 x 50.8 cm / CBu 1
Debora Muhl
Totem, 2009
Sweet grass, waxed linen, rayon ribbons
15 x 14 x 10 inches / 38.1 x 35.6 x 25.4 cm / DMu 3
Akira Satake
Namida, 2010
Stoneware, Kohiki glaze
13 x 10.5 x 9.5 inches / 33 x 26.7 x 24.1 cm / ASA 3
OCTOBER 22 – DECEMBER 10, 2011
Yugen is the Japanese word for the mysterious or profound sense of beauty in the Universe. It is the power to evoke rather than to directly show. It is Exquisite Mystery as it informs the creative process. It is not an aesthetic we use as a critical criteria in the West. This is unfortunate because if we did use it, there would never again be a question of whether functional/non-functional Studio Craft, or self-taught art, should be recognized as High Art.
This exhibition demonstrates the part of process that goes beyond the materials used - it reduces the hold of our critical slavery to materials in craft and presents the cognitive and spiritual essence of the work; its non-physical intentionality as the most important part of its process.
The mysterious edge, the Unexpected Edge, is not an abstraction of anything; it is not 'like' abstraction; it is not the Western concept of 'deliberate' abstraction or creation of symbols. It is the essence of abstraction itself. It is abstraction and we face the unexpected task of absorbing that Mystery without necessarily having an explanation of, or for it.
We feel that every artist in this exhibition has touched in some way this quality of Mysterious Beauty.
Artists exhibiting include: Jerry Bleem, Charissa Brock, Christian Burchard, Judith Duff, Emogayu, Keith Goodhart, Deirdre Hawthorne, Tadashi Ito, Shane Keena, Yuko Kimura, Scott Marr, Debora Muhl, Minoru Ohira, Tim Rowan, Akira Satake, Christine Sefolosha, Chizu Sekiguchi, Rudolph Serra, Sandra Sheehy, Lidia Syroka, and others.