ORIBE URUSHI TSUBO (JAPANESE JAR) by Kodai Ujiie, Japanese (b. 1990 - )

ORIBE URUSHI TSUBO (JAPANESE JAR)
by Kodai Ujiie, Japanese (b. 1990 - )
 Oribe Glazes, Urushi
Produced exclusively for J R Richards, 2026

My ceramic sculptures begin with the familiar form of the vessel, but gradually shift toward something less certain-forms that appear to breathe, expand, rupture, or regenerate. Rather than presenting ceramics as fixed objects, I am interested in the moment when form resists definition and exists between categories: vessel and organism, permanence and change, beauty and unease. The surfaces of the works function like living skin. Through layered glazes, ash, and the unpredictable effects of firing, each piece develops its own unique body. The interior void is equally important, not as emptiness, but as a space of potential and transformation. My practice is rooted in Japanese ceramic traditions, while questioning the ideas of perfection and completion often associated with craft. Inspired by the philosophy of wabi, I see beauty not as something complete or stable, but as something that continually evolves. Biological Chaos Wabi proposes an alternative understanding of beauty-one that embraces mutation, imperfection, and the vitality of forms that are always in the process of becoming.
- Kodai Ujiie