For the last few years, Kazumi Kawai has lived in a valley surrounded by mountains in Okayama, making pottery in this quiet, isolated environment.
There is a natural purity in her work that reflects her environment. Kazumi is adept at using the resources around her. She wakes to the sounds of birds, then goes out to collect clay from behind her house. She kneads the clay shapes, she sometimes uses linen cloth to make texture and dries it, then she applies silver or clay paint before the last firing process mixes it with silver when she fires it. To maintain consistency and functionality, Kazumi uses a mould for the base of each piece, then shapes the top by hand to make each piece unique and one-off.
Kazumi's pieces that have red gestural marks on their surfaces are from a collection colled 'Veins". The red colour is these works comes from the clay Kazumi collects. The lay makes a red-muddy paint that Kazumi uses her fingers to paint with.
These signature red marks speak to her femaleness, strength and Japanese identity. For the viewer, ‘vein’ could evoke a number of meanings: the veins in our bodies; water veins underground; streaks of colour in leaves and rocks.
Kazumi is known for the tea sets she makes for tea ceremonies. Taiwanese tea lovers collect and admire her tea sets and she has had a number of exhibitions in Taiwan as well as very selected gallery in Japan.
These special pieces combine both a functionality and aesthetic allure.