Susumu Koshimizu (Japanese, born 1944), 小清水漸WATER-FLOAT-VESSEL – ISHITSURI (FISHING OF STONE)
1988

shigaraki ware, water, wood, bamboo, wire, stone

235 x 154 x 60 cm (92 1/2 x 60 5/8 x 23 5/8 in)注脚Provenance
Kamakura Gallery, Japan
Private Collection, Japan (acquired directly from the above)

Exhibited
Kanagawa, Japan, Kamakura Gallery, Koshimizu Susumu, 1988, illustrated in color
Gifu, Japan, The Museum of Fine Arts, Susumu Koshimizu: Sculpture of Today, of a Culture, 1992, p.47, illustrated in color

小清水漸
水浮器-疊石（釣石樂）
信樂燒陶器、水、榿葉木、竹子、鐵絲、石頭
1988年作

來源
日本鎌倉畫廊
日本私人收藏 (直接購自上述畫廊)

展覽
「小清水漸」，日本鎌倉畫廊，1988年，彩圖
「小清水漸 雕刻 現代 風士」，日本岐阜県美術館，1992年，第47頁，彩圖

Over the course of his career, Susumu Koshimizu has worked mainly with natural materials like wood, iron, stone and paper, presenting them in unexpected circumstances and combining them with industrial materials. In the way he combines materials, he plays with contrast, exploring and exalting their characteristic elements.

He is one of the principal artists associated with the Mono-ha movement, and amongst them, unique as well for having been the only artist to have trained in sculpture, studying at the Tama Art University in Tokyo in the late 1960s. Amongst the artists of the Mono-ha movement, he single-handedly reevaluated the art of sculpture in Japan in the 1970s within an artistic environment that was increasingly enamoured with the possibilities of conceptual art.

In 1975, Koshimizu went into an intense period of study at a pottery production site in Shigaraki, a mountain village near Kyoto and it was there he made various forms of earthenware basins. He filled up these vessels with water, and these became the first works to be known under the Water-Float-Vessel series. Koshimizu created these sculptures not to underline the functionality of these basins, but to highlight the material properties of the earthenware, bamboo and stone as objects that can have a meaningful existence alongside each other.

The present lot, Water-Float-Vessel – Ishitsuri (Fishing of Stone), is arguably the most articulate piece from the series, with twin soaring bamboo arcs poised above a piece of wood inserted into an earthenware vessel lending the work a commanding sense of scale and completeness. It has an overall form that borrows from the shape of boats, which Koshimizu was working a lot on in the 1980s and 1990s, as he thought of the space of a boat as a space he can physically enter. Within the vessel, there are submerged stones, and these stones are tied to wire then hang from the ends of the arcs, weighed into water, signifying a potent cycle that begins and ends within itself.

As the larger part of his oeuvre springs forth from a concern to notice and accentuate the beauty of what is historical – e.g. traditional Japanese pottery - and every-day, commonplace material like stone, wood and water, his works thoroughly embody the essence of Mono-ha, which is often most simply understood as the exhibiting of matter as art, as unadorned and with as little intervention as possible. Although that is true for Koshimizu, he additionally sees the Mono-ha artist's function to also emphasise the material beauty of the objects around him. He is therefore not adverse to manipulating matter to emphasise its beauty.

In an interview conducted with Tate Modern's Dr Lena Fritsch in 2016, Koshimizu expounded in a simple way on his artistic philosophy:

When I create a piece of art, whatever material I use my idea is to show that material at its most beautiful. So if I'm using paper, I try to find a way to make that paper look as vital and paper-like as possible; a way, moreover, for it to become more than just paper – to have power beyond mere paper. To do that, I act on each material as appropriate; I interact with it as a human being.

Like a supposedly worthless piece of straw that's fallen in the road. A rice stalk, or a pebble, or a twig. How to turn things that are considered mostly worthless into something beautiful. That's want I want to try and do.

小清水漸在他的整個創作生涯裡，一貫以自然物質如木、鐵、石、紙等作為主要的創作媒材，他結合工業素材，以出人意表的狀態呈現這些材質。透過結合不同的材質，他操作對比、探索並頌揚不同材料的獨特元素

作為「物派」的中心人物之一，小清水漸在1960年代後期於東京的多摩美術大學修業，由於是物派藝術家裡唯一受過雕塑訓練的一員，使得他在這個群體裡顯得極為特殊。身為「物派」藝術運動的一份子，在1970年代日本逐漸醉心於觀念藝術的藝術環境裡，他獨自帶動了關於雕塑的重新評價。

1975年，小清水漸在信樂町的製陶窯場投入一段密集地研究。信樂町是位於京都附近的一座山村，藝術家在那裡製作了各式造形的陶盆。他將水注入這些容器，成為第一批以「水浮器」之名而為人所知的作品。小清水漸創作這些雕塑品並非為了強調土製容器的功能，而是為了突顯土器、竹、石等物件本身的物質特性，而這些特性在物件彼此之間產生了一種具有意義的存在。

本拍品《水浮器-疊石》，可以說是此系列裡最明確有力的一件作品，一塊木料穿過土製容器，木材上平衡地豎立起一對高聳的竹製圓弧，整件作品散發出一股源自於尺度與完整性的莊嚴感。作品的整體形象彷彿一艘船，而船正是小清水漸在1980及90年代專注研究的主題。對他而言，船的空間是他可以全然且實際進入的空間。《水浮器-疊石的容器裡，有沉於水中的石頭，而這些石頭以線綁起，從竹製圓弧高處的尾端懸垂至水中，象徵一個深具力量、始於自身亦終於自身的循環

小清水漸透過他的藝術創作，關注並彰顯具有歷史底蘊的美，例如日本傳統陶藝，以及尋常物件如石頭、木料與水。他的作品徹底地體現了物派的精髓，這個精髓經常被簡化為：將物質儘量以最樸素、未經修飾、最少干預的狀態，作為藝術品展示。雖然這對小清水漸而言是正確的，他亦進一步將物派藝術家的任務延伸至強調圍繞身邊物件的物質之美。因此他並不反對透過藝術家的介入以突顯這份美感。

在2016年一場與泰德美術館莉娜．費里奇博士（Dr Lena Fritsch）的對談中，小清水漸以一種簡潔的方式闡述他的藝術哲學：

當我創作一件作品，無論我使用了什麼材料，我的意圖總是以最美的狀態展現這個材料。如果我使用紙，我會試圖找到一種方式，使這張紙儘可能地看起來充滿活力，同時保有紙的質地，讓它成為不僅僅是一張紙，而且進一步擁有超越紙張的力量。為了達到此目的，我依據不同的材料而採取不同的創作方式。我以人的身份，與材料進行互動。

如同一枝掉落路上、看似沒有價值的稻草。一枝稻草、一顆小卵石、或一段細樹枝。如何將最不具價值的物件轉化為美。這是我想嘗試並創造的。