'My pots display a lot of marks and traces of past events. To describe them in a conventional and very simplified way, they are 'dirty' and 'broken'. On the other...
"My pots display a lot of marks and traces of past events. To describe them in a conventional and very simplified way, they are 'dirty' and 'broken'. On the other hand, they can be described in a more sophisticated way as wabi-sabi, which refers to the beauty of imperfection and impermanence." Akiko Hirai (b. 1970)
Born in Shizuoka, Japan, Akiko lives and works in London. Hirai received her Ceramics degree from the University of Westminster in 2001, and from Central Saint Martins in 2003. She initially studied cognitive psychology in Japan. Inspired by her studies, her work thinks through the healing and therapeutic value of ceramics. She mixes her clay with Raku clay from Japan, creating a porous clay body, before mixing ash, slip, and glaze together to create a rough surface scape in her functional wares.