Pretty Functional

When does a functional object become fine art? “Being pretty is a function,” says Saya Moriyasu.

Nearly 100 years after Duchamp’s Fountain, Moriyasu (a graduate of the University of Washington’s Ceramic & Metal Arts program) meditates on this age-old conundrum through small-scale clay sculptures that question the nature of utility.

Her 2005 exhibition “Lamplight Lavish Gathering” directly addressed the matter through an assortment of fanciful, functional table lamps. The exhibit also marked the first time she combined display elements with her work. Lamps were stacked on a specially commissioned table, giving the installation the appearance of a furniture showroom.

In the spacious studio that’s just a couple of feet from her kitchen door, Moriyasu fires low-fire white clay at medium fire, which makes the pieces stronger while giving them a porcelain look and feel.

She also uses a lot of underglaze on unfired clay, allowing her to approach the work in a painterly manner. “The way the glaze soaks into clay is like how watercolors soak into paper,” she explains.

With Lady Portraits — small keepsake medallions of sweet-faced women — she can be more precise with details like eyelashes, hair wisps, and necklaces.

Moriyasu was thinking about expressions of absurd optimism — namely travel fantasies and idealizations of heaven — when she began work on her Floating World series. A three-dimensional take on traditional Japanese woodblock ukiyo-e (“pictures of the floating world”), the several-tiered wooden chandeliers are arrayed with ceramic monkish figures and landscape details such as Mount Fuji-like mountains and windblown trees. Unlike the lamps, the chandeliers do not emit light. Instead, they’re lit to cast shadows on the walls, generating yet more depictions of ephemeral, intangible floating worlds.

Moriyasu’s first permanent public commission opens April 2008 at the new Wing Luke Asian Museum in Seattle.

—Katie Kurtz