Remember the time, in your days of elementary education, when teachers used to assign you projects of making ‘the best out of waste’?
An ingenious Japanese designer artist has implemented his dexterous skills and, literally used scrap in the best possible way – by sculpting it into beautiful artifacts. Ceramic bowls, cups, and porcelain pots which were rendered defective by local factories and disposed off even before the glazing process, were collected, elegantly arranged, evenly stacked, and then filled with concrete to create a magnificent and tenacious structure akin to a podium, strong enough to endure footsteps. This artifact is currently on display in the Maruhiro Ceramics Gallery, located in Hasami, a suburb of Nagasaki, popular for its exquisite tableware production dating back to the 17th century.
The Maruhiro gallery integrated this podium as a platform for its small shelf and table exhibition, becoming a perfect medium to display art. Apart from this, the customers are also allowed to step up onto this platform and walk around to get a more proximal look at the exhibits. The beauty of this model lies in its high durability, its simple structure and its base material which is nothing but impaired ceramic scrap.
The chef d’oeuvre finds its roots in the glorious Hasami heritage, and as a matter of fact, is also a significant addition to it. This simple structure chiselled by an extraordinarily creative though lucid designer, appends eloquence to the gallery’s ambience.
The most brilliant feature of the sculpture is not its beauty, but its emphasis on the idea of recycling. Two extravagantly important problems, today’s world is seasoned with, are pollution and mismanagement of available resources. This walk-able platform constituting waste ceramic crockery implicitly conveys an idea of solving both these problems. By this simple portrayal of the designer’s creativity, arises an inspiration to achieve greater proficiency in utilising resources, and also a message that one man’s fritter is another man’s treasure.
The man behind this masterpiece is, Yusuke Seki,an illustrious Japanese designer and architect. With his work based out of the most populated city in the world, Yusuke Seki has provided his service for numerous eminent corporate clients like Sony and AU. Many of Seki’s masterpieces have been incorporated and put on display by eminent Tokyo based architecture dominions and galleries. Seki works as an autonomous entrepreneur in his own studio, and does not hesitate in selling his work to small scale institutions such as fashion boutiques, candy stores and hair salons.
Yusuke Seki is not just immensely imaginative, but also logically perceptive. His work in essence, lodges on facts, and important aspects and methodologies of design from the past. He believes in maintaining simplicity and minimalism; it being quite evident in his work. His approach to designing, albeit straightforward, expresses meticulous preciseness.
Yusuke Seki’s ceramic stage has served as a revelation for a plethora of architects all around the world. So next time you break a bowl, do not throw it away because this architect might just need it!
Photo Courtesy : acdn.architizer.com, cfileonline.org, retaildesignblog.net, tymote.heteml.jp
