This new ceramic work by Japanese artist Hiroshi Aoki opens upwards like a held breath. A full, rounded body narrows to a small foot below and widens above into a softly flared rim, its dark interior visible from every angle.
Hand-built using multiple types of clay, the piece is glazed, fired and then deliberately reworked: the glaze is partially removed, revealing a dense, granular surface in sand and stone grey. Inside and along the rim, a deep charcoal tone remains, like the trace of fire held within the form.
Neither purely vessel nor purely sculpture, it belongs to Aoki's investigation into how memory and time appear in objects. It is not made to look old. It is made to hold time.
Presented in What Remains, curated by Valeria Viollaz · The mep, Lucerne · 7 November – 2 December 2026.
Artist: Hiroshi Aoki, b. 1976, Japan
Technique: Hand-built, multi-clay, layered glaze, post-firing rework
Year: 2026
Condition: New — contemporary work
Each work is unique. Variations in texture and tone are intrinsic to the process.
This new ceramic work by Japanese artist Hiroshi Aoki opens upwards like a held breath. A full, rounded body narrows to a small foot below and widens above into a softly flared rim, its dark interior visible from every angle.
Hand-built using multiple types of clay, the piece is glazed, fired and then deliberately reworked: the glaze is partially removed, revealing a dense, granular surface in sand and stone grey. Inside and along the rim, a deep charcoal tone remains, like the trace of fire held within the form.
Neither purely vessel nor purely sculpture, it belongs to Aoki's investigation into how memory and time appear in objects. It is not made to look old. It is made to hold time.
Presented in What Remains, curated by Valeria Viollaz · The mep, Lucerne · 7 November – 2 December 2026.
Artist: Hiroshi Aoki, b. 1976, Japan
Technique: Hand-built, multi-clay, layered glaze, post-firing rework
Year: 2026
Condition: New — contemporary work
Each work is unique. Variations in texture and tone are intrinsic to the process.
