When I was in the Gallery of BC Ceramics last week I had no idea that Kinichi Shigeno’s show was coming down the next day! The members’ sale was on the Thursday and I believe the plan is to use all the gallery space for a Christmas display until the end of the year.
I took some photos of Kinichi’s show so if you didn’t get to see it you can get an idea of the sculptural work he has made. He has unashamedly had a shoe fetish for many years and here he has brought together an amusing variety of shoe forms. All are decorated with his signature blue stain drawings, with just a hint here and there of other colours. Very few of the pieces are functional, but you’ll see a fine large bowl with a gold foot. Surprise! the images inside are of shoes.
I have an envelope labelled ‘Kinichi’s blue stain’ containing black powder. He gave workshop participants a sample to take home and try out. That workshop with Fraser Valley Potters’ Guild must have been thirty years ago, when Kinichi had recently arrived in Canada. We’re so glad he stayed! Some time later he impressed us all by having his design chosen as first prize in a formal dinner set competition. The 24-piece set is now used for elegant functions at the Lieutenant Governor’s mansion in Victoria.
Kinichi, along with our guest last week, Susan Delatour Lepoidevin, is a long-time member of ‘Fired-Up’, so we’ll have a chance to see more of their work at the Gallery of BC Ceramics in March 2014.
Below is Kinichi’s artist statement for the show.
November Exhibition:
Kinichi Shigeno – Shoerealism
Nov. 7 to 26. Our last exhibition in 2013!
Opening: Thursday, Nov. 7, 5 to 7 p.m. Artist in attendance. Cash bar.
Shoerealism explores contemporary sculptural forms and surface designs that originate from a continual experimental study of diverse everyday objects that have a common place in our lives. The shoe forms are as diverse as the people who could wear them or who could appreciate them as sculpture coming from our mutual or divergent experiences.
The patterns are reflective of images blended from my experience and understanding of two cultures. I have abstracted these images to reinterpret and to blend them to create motifs that reinterpret design and form as well as explore the connection between art and craft.
—Kinichi Shigeno
http://members.shaw.ca/kshigeno/index.htm
