Blue Dots No. 0403

“Blue Dots” reflects Nakashima’s interest in Sōdeisha, a movement among Japanese ceramicists working in the 1940s through 1950s that embraced biomorphic, sculptural forms over craft-inspired, functional ones. The work features a series of tumescent forms that swell from the surface of a gently curved slab of porcelain. That the piece was hand-built is an impressive achievement given its irregular, bulging forms. Nakashima plays with positive and negative space–the work curves in and out to create shadowy crevices and thin voids that are contrasted against the object’s luminous convex surfaces. Blue dots expand and contract in scale to create a heightened sense of depth and fluid movement. Nakashima’s use of cobalt blue over-glaze recalls the Japanese sometsuke tradition.