Eiko Kishi

Drawing with veins of light; Decorating with rich color flows
Kishi’s earliest work involved drawing onto pots. She then adapted this process, using a cutter or similar tool to incise numerous lines –like fine veins of light –into her work. This technique now forms part of an entirely distinctive process called saiseki zogan (literally ‘colored-stone inlay’) through which Kishi has developed her own creative language; she even begins by mixing her own clay. In recent years Kishi has freed herself from any preconceptions associated with clay as a medium, and has settled on a single theme which inspires all of her forms. This theme is the traditional Japanese performance-art of Noh which Kishi has been familiar with since her teens. She recreates the wonderful decorative beauty of Noh costumes, bathed in light, as they punctuate the surrounding stillness. These forms, each of which seems to capture a single instant in the Noh dance, fuse with Kishi’s unique decorative technique of delicately scattered color.

19: Noh Form, Inlaid with Colored Stones
20: Vessel, Inlaid with Colored Stones
21: Noh Form, Inlaid with Colored Stones