Artist Statement in Japanese 日本語
Artist Statement
Tomomi Tanaka
My sculptural work takes shape by pressing and layering wafer-thin folds of clay, one by one, over a hand-built armature. This practice grew from an instinctive gesture: discovering the quiet, vulnerable textures exposed when raw clay yields beneath the weight of a wooden board and the pressure of my palm. In the fragile ridges left by that compression, I recognized the tactile weight of things left unsaid. Guarding against friction or isolation, I often hold back my voice; yet words unuttered do not dissipate—they settle inward, stratifying into delicate, sedimentary layers within the body. At first, my making was an urgent, solitary ritual of release, pressing countless folds onto simple spherical vessels as if to exteriorize that silent accumulation.
Yet as my hands continued their repetitive labor, my attention shifted from emotional release to the physical dialogue taking place between the folds. The subtle shifts in scale and rhythm began to generate wave-like undulations and dynamic tension. Anger, grief, and quiet joy do not dwell in stillness; they churn, surge, and intertwine. As I sought to follow these internal currents, the underlying forms began to move of their own accord—yielding waists, twisting contours, and reaching out with limb-like vitality. In response, the folds matured, shifting from fragile leaf-like skins into bold, muscular bands. By surrendering to the material’s unpredictable nature—its incidental tears, slumps, and fissures—the work moved beyond mere catharsis. It began to breathe as an autonomous entity, differentiated from my body yet alive with its own presence.
I do not possess the swift certainty of language. But this slow, rigorous accumulation of clay—hours spent listening through the fingertips—is my essential mode of confronting the self. Through these layered forms, I hope to offer viewers a quiet encounter with something deeply felt yet rarely spoken, inviting their own silent currents to stir.