The versatile ways contemporary artists use bamboo is explored in a new exhibition at the Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) in Los Angeles. Japanese bamboo weaving is an art form that dates back centuries. A uniquely challenging medium, bamboo can be bent, tied, woven, plaited and dyed in a range of techniques that artisans have developed and passed down through generations of masters. Traditionally used for fine functional objects like baskets, since the 20th century, artists have become increasingly experimental, creating more sculptural works.The works in ‘Bamboo’ show this progression, with objects ranging from functional to fantastical. The inclusion of a large-scale installation by Akio Hizume’s “Fibonacci Tunnel” (2018), takes this to new heights. Blending architecture, traditional weaving and construction techniques, and geometric principles, the installation is meant for visitors to walk through and interact with.

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
Akio Hizume, Site-specific installation; “Fibonacci  Tunnel,” 2018

While Hizume’s “Fibonacci Tunnel” is impressive in size and construction, the smaller works in the show are also inspiring. The sensuous, organic forms show the capabilities of bamboo: it is supple yet strong, and evocative in both complex construction and simple, elegant designs. All of these works show how creating bamboo objects, once a craft created out of necessity, continues to grow as a diverse art form, encompassing many possibilities.

COURTESY OF TAI MODERN. PHOTO: TAI MODERN
Kajiwara Aya, Spiral Pattern Flower Basket, 2014

COURTESY OF THE COTSEN COLLECTION. PHOTO: SUSAN EINSTEIN
Fujitsuka Shosei, Bamboo Basketry Sculpture; “Winding”, 1983

Bamboo is on view at CAFAM through September 9, 2018. For more information visit http://www.cafam.org/exhibitions/current-exhibitions

The Craft & Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) in Los Angeles presents Bamboo, an exhibition of 30 historical and contemporary works that explore the trajectory of Japanese bamboo basketry and sculpture. Drawn mostly from the Los Angeles-based Cotsen Collection, this exhibition reflects the evolution of the art form—from Chinese-style tea ceremony baskets to striking contemporary sculptures. A large-scale, site-specific installation by Japan-based artist Akio Hizume evokes the possibilities of bamboo as an artistic material. The exhibition will open on May 27 and run through September 9, 2018.

Fine bamboo basketry gained a foothold in Japanese culture during Japan’s medieval period (1185-1573 CE) as the tea ceremony was adapted from China and became an important part of Japanese lifestyle. The demand for fine Chinese style bamboo tea and flower arranging vessels resulted in numerous talented artist and apprentices devoted to the artform. Though earlier artists were emulating Chinese forms, by the mid-19th century Japanese bamboo artists were making artist-signed baskets with a distinctly Japanese aesthetic that embraced the imperfect and organic simplicity known as wabi-sabi. From the 20th century to present day, bamboo basketry became less functional and more radically sculptural.

Bamboo is an expressive material that is challenging to work with, involving complex weaving, plaited, dyeing, bending, and knotting. Though early artists learned through apprenticeship and were part of artist lineages, present-day artists are often self-taught and begin learning through university programs,. Included in the exhibition or two works by Shono Shounsai (1904-1974), the first bamboo artist named a Living National Treasure (1967) by the Japanese government. Artist Yamaguchi Ryuun, noted for his voluminous bamboo forms, apprenticed with Shounnsai and is active in teaching a new generation of bamboo artists. Though the art mostly passed down to male practitioners, there are a small number of women artists working today. These include Kajiwara Aya and Tanabe Mitsuko, who both studied the art form after marrying into families of bamboo artists.

Architect and artist Akio Hizume’s Fibonacci Tunnel (2018) is an architectural installation that shows new directions in bamboo artistry. Made entirely of bamboo poles and stakes, the large tunnel incorporates the geometric principles of the golden ratio and Fibonacci sequence and is meant for visitors to walk through. Hizume will lead a workshop at the museum during the course of the exhibition.

As the importance of the tea ceremony declined in Japan during the last century, bamboo basketry was no longer a sustainable enterprise for artists. Collector Lloyd Cotsen saw decline in the artistic legacy and created a competition for young bamboo artist that took place from 2000 to 2007. The competition helped revive contemporary bamboo basketry and has encouraged a new generation of artists to expand and innovate the artform.

Bamboo is organized by CAFAM exhibitions curator Holly Jerger and Lyssa Stapleton, curator of the Cotsen Collection, at the Craft & Folk Art Museum.

For more information and museum hours please visit www.cafam.org

HAND/EYE Fund
P.O. Box 921
Shelter Island, NY 11964
info@handeyemagazine.com

In 1970, there were between 600 and 700 bamboo craftspeople making a living in Japan, creating items ranging from simple food steamers and chopsticks to flower baskets of extraordinary beauty and complexity. The world has changed much since 1970. Today less expensive bamboo objects imported from Southeast Asia have largely displaced locally made wares in Japanese shops. In Oita Prefecture, which for over one hundred years has boasted the largest concentration of bamboo craftspeople in all of Japan, the number of people working with bamboo has shrunk by two thirds. The Commerce, Industry, and Labor Department of the Oita Prefectural Government has long appreciated the cultural and economic importance of bamboo crafts in the region and is actively promoting the field to ensure its long term vitality. Bamboo artists have also banded together to help their cause. The Oita Bamboo Fine Arts Association was formed to bring together both sculptural and more traditional artists, and the Beppu Bamboo Craft Union has looked after the artists’ interests for many years. Individual masters, such as Shono Tokuzo, Yamaguchi Ryuun and Morigami Jin, have taken an active role in encouraging the next generation of bamboo artists.

Two generations ago the apprenticeship of a bamboo craftsman might have lasted ten years. The first few years were often exclusively spent learning how to select and cut bamboo into usable strips for the master. It might take five years before a student was making simple baskets from start to finish. Many years passed before an ambitious assistant would offer works with their own signature to be judged by their master and the public. This may seem a daunting process to us in the West, but the apprentice knew this would lead eventually to a good livelihood, and all the years of disciplined focus aided in establishing a worthy personal style. Master bamboo artists of today will often speak of a self-transcending devotion to the tradition and to the medium itself. Many say they allow the bamboo to speak through them, and they strive to be true to the spirit of bamboo. This humility shows what is considered the ‘proper mind’ of a Japanese artist working in a traditional craft.

Modern teaching methods are more condensed. The two-year course taught at the Oita Prefectural Bamboo Craft and Training Support Center teaches the preparation of bamboo, the different plaiting patterns, and the vocabulary of knots seen in bamboo art, but then a student must find a mentor and, most of all, keep up full-time studio practice. However, the evaporation of the domestic market for bamboo articles means most students cannot support themselves through bamboo craftwork. If a graduate is lucky enough to be hired as an assistant by a master artist, and still wants to work in the field five years after splitting their first culm of bamboo, a threshold has been reached.There is a good chance this person will continue on the path of mastering bamboo art. Few who begin arrive at this five-year mark. Few have enough savings to live on for five years while they spend 60 hours a week honing their skills. To care for bamboo art’s future, we must find new ways for the student to earn whilethey learn.

For nearly twenty years, TAI Modern (formerly TAI Gallery)has exhibited Japanese bamboo art in the United States and Europe with great success, finding hundreds of passionate collectors. The strong international response to bamboo art has fueled efforts within Japan to promote and nurture this unique creative capital. The new artists exhibiting at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center were challenged jointly by the Oita Bamboo Industry and Culture Association and TAI Modern to work on designing a centerpiece for the home that would be priced at a level affordable to many people. If a worldwide market for Japanese bamboo decorative arts could be rekindled, much as it was by the Arts and Crafts Movement of the late 19th century, a new source of earnings could allow young artists the time they need to master their medium.

The results of the centerpiece project are promising. All the artists deserve congratulations and I hope they forgive me for only mentioning a few of them. The work by Kizaki Kazutoshi, a student of Shono Tokuzo, has a strong design that connects it to his teacher’s famous lineage but employs a bold red color that is emphatically individual. Matsuda Hiroki’s exuberant fireworks-inspired piece will appeal to many viewers. Taniguchi Michito has created a playful, eccentric form that is weighted to stand at various angles.Yufu Hiroshi is working to synthesize his own style with the powerful techniques he has learned from his father, Shohaku, and Kodama Mie has enlivened a basic basket form by incorporating dynamic horizontal dividing layers.

Standing next to these youthful efforts are works made by the most accomplished bamboo artists in the world. While these artists’ works speak for themselves, I can’t help but mention several. Using the simplest of shapes, Abe Motoshi Kiraku’s pine needle plaited basket is a marvel of subtlety while Kibe Seiho’s basket, armored in aged, smoked bamboo, displays amazing, rich color. The Kajiwaras, husband Koho and wife Aya, staying true to the vessel form their entire careers, have created unmistakably individual styles that complement each other. And while the vessel tradition is ancient in Oita, the region is also the birth place of modernist, sculptural bamboo art. Shono Tokuzo, son of Shono Shounsai, the great pioneer of the sculptural tradition, strives to both communicate a contemporary sensibility in his art and honor the natural beauty of bamboo. Tokuzo’s work tends toward the philosophical, questioning the identity and role of a basket in its holding of something tangible and the identity of sculpture which holds space. Also trained in Shounsai’s studio, Tanabe Kochikusai is a seminal artist, being his master’s primary assistant during the creation of the first abstract art made of bamboo. Oita is home to individualists with free roaming imaginations as well, such as Sugiura Noriyoshi, Yonezawa Jiro, and Kawashima Shigeo.

When the next generation of bamboo artists steps forward to claim its place, we cannot be sure how many it will number or know what its artworks will look like. But all of us who love bamboo will know we have done all we could to ensure this next generation of bamboo artists will be just as vital and creative as the previous five generations have been.

Steven Halvorsen, TAI Modern, September 2014