by SHOKO Taruma (b.1991)
and Janique Bouget (b. 1989)
Reiwa 1, 2019
Paper and lacquer, kanshitsu
32 x 27 x 29 (h) cm.
Symbiosis – a mutually beneficial relationship between two apparently disparate elements – is a work joining two very different materials – lacquer and paper, and a fusing of differing cultures – those of Japan and France. It is the product of an annual collaboration initiative entitled Savoir Faire des Takumi which since 2019 has enabled the pairing of artists from Kyoto and Paris.
From a cradle of a delicate, cellular, paper sculpture, emerges the hard, sinuous, fluidity of high- gloss black lacquer, twisting and flowing to the ground. It has a powerful organic, animalistic quality capturing a moment of life’s creation. It harnesses the contrasts of light, shadow and reflection, hard surface and ephemeral setting.
Bourget, the French paper sculptor, graduated from the Ecole Supérieure des Arts et de Design of Orléans in 2012. Finding artistic inspiration in simple white paper – its finesse, lightness and apparent fragility – she uses those qualities to create organic works, expressing movement and focusing on concepts of emptiness and lightness.
Shoko obtained her Masters from of the Kyoto City University of Arts in 2016, where she now teaches. Since graduation her works have been exhibited internationally, in 2016 being awarded the East-West Art prize and, in 2021, receiving the Kyoto City Art Newcomer Award, 京都市芸術新人賞. Always drawn to the tension between the apparent fluidity of lacquer and its hard reality, her works capture the reflective surface potential of that contradiction. She works exclusively in high-gloss-finish, black urushi.