Tashima Etsuko 田嶋悦子 b. 1959
H22 x W42 x D36cm
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Born in Osaka and graduated from Osaka University of Arts, Tashima Etsuko’s sculptures bring together two historical craft mediums: glass casting and ceramic sculpture with a yellow oribe underglaze to create forms that enquire into the relationship between light, shadow, and color; light permeates through materials and is altered, and expresses color by reflecting off surfaces. She examines opacity and translucency through materiality. Having studied under Yanagihara Mutsuo (b. 1934), her yellow glazes follow the bold colors that stem from the influence of American expressionism in the 70s, as well as his famous yellow Oribe glaze. Tashima’s sculptural forms are streamlined, such as this piece from her Cornucopia series. The glass is casted after the shape of insects’ wings, while the vivid yellow, opaque, bimorphic body has a slight upwards curvature. The name, cornucopia recalls concepts of natural abundance. One imagines looking through a magnifying glass to examine the body of a smaller creature when gazing upon this piece.
As the first tenured female faculty member of the Osaka Unviersity of Arts, Tashima is part of a vanguard generation of highly influential post-war female artists in Japan whose practices are inspired by concepts of female sexuality and representations of nature.