Large sculptural artworks can set up a distance between the viewer and the object. But in the case of the nine enormous 6-foot-high, 1,200-pound hollow ceramic heads that Jun Kaneko has sculpted and that are exhibited at Klein Art Works gallery, the effect is quite the opposite.
The human imagery of Kaneko’s large-scale heads offers an immediately recognizable form, even in the cases where the facial features have been abstracted. Certainly the curved shapes derive from Kaneko’s three-dimensional sculptures such as his “Egyptian Queen,” “Egyptian King” and “Haiku,” and the vivid, very unrealistic colors and sometimes heavily patterned surfaces are also similar to many of his sculptures and wall art. But even the artist isn’t certain and doesn’t seem to care what inspired these works.
“I’m not sure. They’re still in an experimental stage,” he explained from his home and studio in Omaha.
Kaneko, who was born in Nagoya, Japan, in 1942 and came to this country in 1963, began seriously toying with the idea of working figuratively about five years ago.
“I thought there might be an advantage to working with figural forms since viewers associate easily with them, but I wasn’t sure that would prove to be true. Abstract forms give the viewer complete freedom to imagine anything. Because I didn’t know, I needed to explore the idea,” he said.
Without planning in advance on paper what the heads would look like and how large they would be, he began building them from clay, making the sides 2 to 3 inches thick for support and fashioning them as large as 170 inches in circumference. His goal was to make them large enough so that a viewer’s eyes would be level with the sculpture’s eyes — or where they might be if he had included them — thus offering a sense of direct contact.
“They had to have a certain scale or mass, though I also wasn’t sure what that scale should be. They may seem large but that’s all relative since they’re really quite small in relation to an enormous mountain. The main thing was that the finished form had to have a certain kind of soul because I’m more interested in spiritual than physical scale,” Kaneko said.
More Top Picks Best Pasta Drying Racks For Homemade Pasta
The process was time consuming. After building the forms, he let each head dry for six months, bisque fired it, which took nine days, then painted it with slip and glaze and fired it, which took another nine days. Many of them reveal slight cracks, which he left intact and which create an appealing aged patina.
Though Kaneko also didn’t plan in advance the pattern or palette, the six months of drying time gave him an adequate period to decide how the finished forms should look.
“It became quite intuitive. Certain colors and shapes were dictated, and each head had to stand on its own, even if I saw it as part of a pair.”
The results are powerful and crisp — whether the works are viewed individually, in a pair or as an entire environment of nine works. A white and black head seem the most realistic; a brilliant turquoise blue head and another with concentric stripes of gold and beige with a fine red line the most imaginative. Kaneko placed some to face each other; others to stare off into nowhere.
It`s disappointing that Kaneko is unwilling to commit to continuing this genre. “I’m not definitely thinking of stopping, but I don’t know. I like to do so many types of art.” More reason to view these while they’re on view.
The show continues at Klein Art Works, 400 W. Morgan St., through March 21.