Takamori's earliest (and most charming) work here is a large miniature (56-inch by 34-inch by 12-inch) raku-fired construction of the Japanese village he grew up in.
On any of these vessels, a subject's overt but private actions are made public - we and voyeurs in the art see them - and a subject's inner life is exposed, adding emotional and psychic dimension to those acts. As with contemporary literary fiction, Takamori leaves the impression that nothing is withheld. Any restraint comes from the skill of the art-making process, not subject matter.
He does this by hand building flat-bottomed, open-topped "envelopes" with tall walls, then cutting down a "front" wall, exposing the rear, interior vessel wall. Think of seeing someone shorter in front of someone taller or more encompassing.
A couple, sometimes biracial, might be embracing. The large muscles of arms, thighs or buttocks and breasts bulge emotionally; faces are contoured on both sides of a wall. On the reverse side, we get a fascinating glimpse of Takamori's second narrative, a characterization or subplot, in the concave (or convex) of a first-seen contour.
For Takamori, the reality of eroticism seems to lie in layers of detached, lyrical moments, each familiar and truthful. Almost all show a raging torrent of hormonal emotions. You are invited to look inside.
Curator Peter Held, director of ASU's Ceramics Research Center, notes in the sumptuous book Between Clouds of Memory that Takamori's need for a different set of creative ideas led him to the freestanding human-figure ceramic sculptures he's creating now.
With antecedents in Chinese sculpture, their style is sometimes seen in religious art and, especially in large groups, demonstrate the tenet that in the ordinary is found the sacred. These smooth, matte surfaced figures (like those of General MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito at the end of World War II) have palpable presence and depict totally restrained public situations. While these are less exciting on first glance, an understanding of the historical or public circumstances fleshes out a layered artistic intent.
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