Year: 2024
Medium: bronze
Dimensions: 30 x 25 x 21 cm (11 7/8 x 9 7/8 x 8 1/4 in.) *excluding pedestal
Edition: No. 2 of 5 + 1 A.P.
Acquired from Takuro Someya Contemporary Art, 2024
In the face of this indescribable sculpture, one would not attempt to elucidate anything by concept or context. Here is a block of bronze, which was molded and cast from the clay sculpture in its original form. It does not seem to require any particular interpretation beyond its reality. Perhaps this is something that should be intuited. It is undeniable that Okazaki’s sculptures are extremely abstract, but it raises the question of what essence Okazaki is trying to abstract through this sculpture. Quantity is the first aspect. The weight including the damp clay is preserved in the bronze. Furthermore, since no meaning can be discerned from the sculpture, one has no choice but to directly confront the shape itself. Large cracks, traces of irregularities disturbing the clay surface, and cross-sections that appear forcibly torn off - all of them are fixed in shape as traces of what was once clay. This quantity and shape constitute what is traditionally known as sculpture. In other words, Okazaki may have aimed to abstract the very concept of sculpture itself in this work. It is the exploration of the prototype of abstract expression in sculpture, or perhaps the path to the archetype of material expression.
