Kazuo Kadonaga
consistently chooses common materials, not to disguise their familiarity, but
to call attention and give worth to their inherent qualities. Then he
methodically identifies the simplest manipulation and, like an alchemist,
proceeds to reorder the natural order of the materials so they take on new
significance and meaning. Because of this approach, time becomes his most
important medium, both as a tool and a vital element within each piece. He
wrestles with materials that are particularly susceptible to unpredictable
environments and joyously acknowledges chance; for example, the flaws and
imperfections found in his glass works embody chance and fragility in the
environment.
Kazuo,
from his earliest sculptures made in the mid-seventies, has chosen materials,
perhaps banal to some viewers, that are readily available. He utilizes
well-known materials like wood, paper, bamboo, and silk?materials common in his
everyday surroundings as well as that of his audience. His choices have been
clear and simple?cedar or pine wood, handmade mulberry paper, native bamboo and
the exquisite silkworm. In doing so, he maintains the simplicity of the
materials in the finished work, he keeps clear the process for making it, and
in the end, he keeps the work from looking gJapanese.h In the late eighties he
chose glass, simple clear window glass, as the new material with which to
collaborate. Interestingly, of all the materials he has chosen to date, glass
is the only inorganic substance he has utilized.
Time is an enduring
characteristic of Kazuo and his work. Without expectation of the outcome, he
grants time to explore and recognize the inherent limitations of selected
materials, to select an appropriate process and to determine the extent of his
own knowledge and endurance. To him perhaps it is time-time to do the necessary research, time to experiment, time to
make mistakes, time to seek advice and examine the information?that constitutes
the gart.h The recognition of time as a significant element of the work allows
him to become comfortable, at ease, intuitive with each material. Time also
allows a maturity of the work, of himself, and potentially the viewer. These
pieces require a real expenditure of time on the viewerfs part to appreciate
the evidence of time embedded in the work.
As with the other
materials, finding ease with glass took time. For nearly fifteen years, Kazuo
has been thinking, researching and working with glass. It was not until the
mid-nineties, after several attempts, that he was able to produce a piece
through a technique of his own design with which he was comfortable. This
process entails patience and time?forty-eight hours to pour a continuous string
of molten glass from a furnace located ten feet above a preheated kiln. The
glass threads through a twelve-inch opening in the top of the kiln onto a steel
plate inside. There, in a closed, computer-controlled environment, the
approximately 1,500-pound random accumulation of liquid glass will rest, slowly
cooling for 120 days to room temperature before it is removed.
More so than with the other materials that
Kazuo uses, glass has its own peculiar characteristics and is not so
controllable. But just as with his chosen materials, the environment
contributes significantly to the look of the finished glass work. The melted
window glass flows in a liquid thread from the furnace to the kiln through an
environment of studio air that varies in relative humidity, ambient
temperature, and air-borne pollutants from minute to minute, day to night for
two twenty-four hour days. Close examination of each green translucent mound
will reveal the random nature of this dramatic activity, including the
resulting imperfections and bubbles caused by the unstable air captured within
the glass over the length of the pour. A large bubble of air in one of the
works, captured for a lifetime, is reminiscent in spirit of an important work
by Marcel Duchamp, Air de Paris (50 cc of
Paris Air).For each, Duchamp and
Kadonaga, this gevent of captureh adds a sense of intrigue for what we cannot
see but only imagine.
The glass works assembled for this exhibition present the
viewer with confirmation of the artistfs successful collaboration with
a common material, a simple process, and an unpredictable environment.
He has achieved equilibrium among these three elements, as well as between
control and mystery, that stretches the limits of time. These works, with
their visible hard ripples, are calendars imprinted with the subtle events
of a specific forty-eight hours. Because of the impervious characteristics
of glass, these events will be harbored, still and safe, for the longest
of times-an eternity.