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hand vase
It is the first work in a vase for a single flower of Hasami-ware for Azuma. As the title “hand vase”, it has a long process to have arrived to this pottery form through the conceptual stage in 2005 and the announcement at AMPG in 2009. The work announced at AMPG was the one by mannequin hands each with a white glove for the medical treatment in various hand-poses.
The “hand vase” by the Hasami-yaki earthenware produced in Hasami-cho, Higashisonogi, Nagasaki, is different from the one at AMPG in the single pose though the white color is the same. There is a puncture on the tip of the middle finger which is provocatively posed, that is a specification to arrange a flower there. When the work was announced first, 100 editions were arranged in an orderly manner, and a daffodil was arranged only in one among those. Azuma showed his criticism to the trivial narcissism by arranging a Narcissus - a flower originated in the handsome youth who looked admiringly at his own face and was drowned in Greek myths.
| Artist | Makoto AZUMA | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | 2009 | Owner | Private collection |
| Genre | Etc. | Material | Hasami-yaki single‐flower vase |
| Size | W100×D75×H225mm | ||
| Note | Exhibited in "hand vase" at CLEAR GALLERY (Octover 30 - November 3, 2009), photo by Shunsuke SHIINOKI, courtesy of AMKK | ||
Makoto AZUMA: hand vase30/Oct/2009 - 03/Nov/2009CLEAR GALLERYIntroducing a work that expressed anger to narcissism of contemporary society.
Makoto Azuma Exhibition at ARKHILLS: Bridge of PlantsIndeed, the title of the works, “Bridge of Plants” (2009), created by Makoto Azuma, and their concept of “working as bridges between cities and nature” would make you imagine in a relatively-easy way the figure o........
The whole and a part 2009 “collector/collection”The 2009 was a year of “collectors”. The “Neoteny Japan: Takahashi Collection” directed by Ryutaro Takahashi, who may be one of the best-known collector of modern artworks, was held all around Japan last year an........
Makoto Azuma: hand vaseThere is one anecdote. Hideyoshi Toyotomi heard that morning glories were blooming beautifully in Sen no Rikyu’s garden and he wished to visit there. However, as soon as reaching Rikyu’s garden...
Makoto Azuma: adidas Plants ExhibitionThe plastic greenhouse about which I would like to write here is located in a corner of Sakuragaoka, Setagaya Ward. We often see that vegetables and fruits are cultivated for foods in greenhouses which are owned by farm........
TOKYO FIBER ’09 SENSEWAREThis show was held in Tokyo as part of the exhibition tour of the “TOKYO FIBER ’09”, which was held first at Triennale Design Museum, Milano around the same term as La Triennale Di Milano in April, 2009, under the........
“I♥湯” (‘I Love Yu’) Created by Shinro OhtakeThe contemporary artist Shinro Ohtake has established a creative style in which he puts paint on to things found in his daily life, such as pinups, and produces collage books. Despite this, what he has created this time........
Naoshima Bath: “I♥湯”What a greedy man I am to seek added value for Japanese-style public baths and hot springs, though it is pleasant enough just to sit in a large bathtub with my legs stretched out. I never go to bath houses since I have........
Makoto Azuma: Distortion×FlowersDistortion X Flowers is the long-awaited exhibition for those of us who are familiar with the background of Azuma, now a florist, as an aspiring youth who left his hometown Fukuoka to come to Tokyo to start his musical c........
Makoto Azuma: AMPG vol.25, The 4th Stage (08-24/May/2009)Makoto Azuma dislikes nostalgia intensely. When AMPG, which he had been operating for two years, closed in March 2009, he said, “…this means neither a starting point nor an ending of something”, which means that A........
Flowers for Praying - Base Point of Makoto AzumaOn March 9, 2009, I visited AMKK (Makoto Azuma, Kaki Kenkyujo) and JARDINS des FLEURS, which had moved to Minami-Aoyama on January 11, 2009. My aim was to interview Makoto Azuma, who had held exhibitions at AMPG twenty-........
TOTAL“TOTAL” is a kind of project exhibition, which is also organized as a presentation party of Elmo Lewis Inc, a company which has started to import and sell planters made by VesseL USA Inc. Works created by Makoto Az........
Makoto Azuma: AMPG vol.25This is a comprehensive exhibition of Azuma’s private gallery activities of twenty-four exhibitions up to the present exhibition of artworks using plants. The gallery was operated by Azuma himself for two years from Ap........
About the experience in AMPG"AMPG"(AZUMA MAKOTO PRIVATE GALLERY), the private gallery where Azuma Makoto established for presenting his artwork using flower/plant monthly for two years from April, 2007 to March, 2009.
Plants of remembrance_0-21 FukumFollowing to the 2 years exhibition in AMPG, this was a work announced in the fourth stage of "AMPG vol. 25, The 4th Stage" held in Mitsubishi-Jisho ARTIUM in Fukuoka which is his hometown. The pine and the bamboo shoot........
Distortion×FlowersIt is a photograph work announced in his solo exhibition "Distortion×Flowers". The various vivid flowers and plants closely compose the whole like a collage centering on one effector. The use of the effector as an equip........
TIME OF MOSSThe material Azuma used for the exhibition " TOKYO FIBER ’09 SENSEWARE" which shows the creativity using artificial fiber technology of Japan was terramac (by Unitika, Ltd.). Azuma arranged moss in the terramac that ha........
rollingIt was not only me who felt amazed on entering the gallery. Azuma did not try too hard because of the last AMPG exhibition, nor did he fall into sentimentality and simply enjoy looking back over the past two years. He sh........
umechanOver twenty branches of Japanese plums are set out in a decorative pattern in a basin in the gallery. Banding bands used for "Botanical Sculpture #1 Assemblage" (February 2008) are also used here, but basically the branc........
hand vaseThe hands of a mannequin are placed on a rectangular concrete slab. Each hand, wearing a white glove, holds a cylinder in which flowers are arranged in small amount of water. Azuma envisaged the "hand vase" in 2005. He s........
DesolateA red line is drawn on the floor near the entrance of the exhibition room. As one walks into the room, a huge refrigerator is found in which a vast number of gladioli are arranged. A single red gladiolus flower among the........
Punk tank gardenAMPG 20th Exhibition (November 1st - 20th, 2008)
Compact greenhouses where only Azuma’s favorite flowers are arranged on a theme he chose are displayed.
MOSSY HILL (What a fucking wonderful world)AMPG 13th Exhibition (April 1st - 20th, 2008).
"MOSSY HILL (What a fucking wonderful world)" is a collaboration with a musician, YUZU, and was used for the artwork of the album, "Wonderful World" (April 2008).
Garden of Reversal 2 (walking garden)Japanese cedar reaching a height of 2m and a weight of 200kg, Leucobryum juniperoideum. The planters used to carry each plant move around the exhibition room at a speed of 2km per hour, sometimes rotating or turning arou........
Fish&FlowerIn sharp contrast to the entirely red space of the last exhibition, a cool place was produced in the middle of a hot summer. The keyword for this exhibition is "appreciation". In the exhibition room, three aquariums are........
SHIKI 3A Japanese white pine tree is floating in a one-meter cubic acrylic case filled with water. The case directly placed on the floor lowers our eyes to force us to look at the pine tree from above. Frozen air bubbles are th........
Burning FirIn the middle of November, Christmas trees can be seen here and there. The colorfully decorated, glittery trees are welcomed by people. It is the busiest season for Azuma, a flower shop owner, and he often used to accept........
The other side of Crazy REDA red exhibition room created by red film pasted onto the windows and fluorescent lighting. Azuma arranged flowers in a drum and a toilet - something not usually used as a vase. Although improvised to be created today an........
White, Black, Gray, Plants and MeA flower is a sexual organ. Pollens produced by stamens are pollinated on an ovule that is part of a pistil, and seeds are born. Flowers do not have exactly the same mechanism as animals including humans, however, it is........
Botanical Sculpture #1 AssemblageSeveral flowers/plants are combined by using bands within a four meter stage. The first theme of "Botanical Sculpture" series is "Assemblage". It has massiveness, but the rhythmical arrangement is also fun. I want to foc........
Concrete×BulbGreen peeping through a brown lump almost vertically rises up against the concrete side, for a short distance. That thick bud and stem look like a male sexual organ, however, the pointed end will break into red colors an........
Bamboo Man of Power (dedicated to Sakutaro Hagiwara)As the reply to "Bamboo" (published in "Howling at the Moon" in 1917) by Sakutaro Hagiwara, he created a bamboo grove consisting of one bamboo and twenty-five photo panels. Sakutaro focused on elements of the "field" suc........
The Catcher in the DaturaThe room light is turned off and scattered incandescent lamps illuminate a huge cage. It looks like one used to hold savage animals, but the lock is an unreliable padlock. We worry that it will break. Of course it is no........
Damned IkebanaPhotos of flowers/plants placed in cups are displayed on the walls. They are on a cup or just put beside a cup. The flowers/plants are waste materials, not for sale as products. The beauty and the interest of their figur........
SHIKI 2"Plants have limitless modeling/ To express it/ Is to establish a rule for every environment surrounding them/ And to set them in, I think./(…some sentences omitted…)/ SHIKI consists of two keywords:/ One is ‘pine........
Meat and FlowerAMPG 19th Exhibition (October 1st - 20th, 2008)
A vertically long, acrylic case. A piece of beef hanging down from the top. Vividly red paphiopedilum was pinned on the beef hung in the air, gradually changing its color t........
SHIKI 4Those who are accustomed to Azuma's work must never have expected that he would use vacuum packing for the "SHIKI" series, which has used iron framing, a freezer and an aquarium in the past. The latest exhibition has two........
Botanical Sculpture #2 holdingA slender green bud of an Easter lily is articulated on the tip of a silver hand clip stuck in the concrete. The theme of this second artwork, which was created after "Botanical Sculpture #1 Assemblage" (February 2008),........
BOMBING OF A DAHLIAWhen entering the gallery, it smelled slightly, but not because of rotten flowers/plants. As I walked in, I saw that something black was scattered on the floor. The smell was caused by firecrackers and the scattered mate........
Rip a go go (for Yukio Nakagawa)Do you know Yukio Nakagawa (born in 1918)? He learned Ikenobo-style Ikebana from his grandmother, and in 1950, joined Hakkuto-sha, the Ikebana research group presided over by Mirei Shigemori, landscape researcher and gar........
LEAF MANIn a white space, (s)he stood still in the distance to stare at Makoto Azuma. “LEAF MAN” is the existence Azuma saw in his dreams sometimes. Rezfan(F), Monsutera (M), Haran (F), Kuwazuimo (M), Yashi (F), Asuparagasu........
Makoto AZUMA(Makoto Azuma) Born on July 24, 1976 in Fukuma Town (currently Fukutsu City), Fukuoka Prefecture. Flower shop owner.
He went to Tokyo in 1997 to make his debut in a rock band with four members. While engaged in the band........
AMPGOpened in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, Tokyo. AMPG ーAzuma Makoto Private Galleryー is a private gallery of new rising flower artist, Makoto Azuma, who also runs JARDINS des FLEURS, or often said as Japan’s first haute-coutu........
- updated: 19/Jan/2010
hand vase / Makoto AZUMA - updated: 15/Jan/2010
Plants of remembrance_0-21 Fukum / Makoto AZUMA - updated: 13/Jan/2010
Distortion×Flowers / Makoto AZUMA - updated: 12/Jan/2010
TIME OF MOSS / Makoto AZUMA - updated: 05/Oct/2009
J / Natsunosuke MISE - updated: 02/Oct/2009
The Prince - II Pincipe - / Natsunosuke MISE - updated: 01/Oct/2009
My God / Natsunosuke MISE - updated: 25/Sep/2009
Ruining Japanese Painting / Natsunosuke MISE - updated: 31/Aug/2009
Strange Scenery / Natsunosuke MISE - updated: 30/Aug/2009
Regeneration of Japanese Painting / Natsunosuke MISE
