Hino Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition entitled “Bu, Tsu, Shi, Tsu,” by Keizo Tawa from Tuesday, January 15th, 2019.

Keizo Tawa is a sculptor who was born in Ōmishima Island, Ehime Prefecture Japan, in 1952. He has been working with iron for over 40 years and he has dedicated most of his time to perfecting his process of “striking” solid iron blocks with hammers he has made himself. In contrast to the simplicity of the process, literally thousands of working hours and an enormous amount of energy are invested in the making of these works. The time and labour have become synonymous with the artist’s style and ultimately have led to the creation of a body of his emblematic work that is seemingly taciturn yet makes us feel a sense of warmth: a quality mirrored in the character of the artist himself.

Tawa’s enthusiasm to discover the inside of the material generated his “striking” process, but over the past 10 years he has shifted the process to one more associated with “carving” which seems to get closer to accomplishing his desire. The use of scrap material is also one of the mentionable changes during the last decade. Scrap material is a sort of oddment, which is yielded during the process of manufacturing ironware, but Tawa daringly incorporates the apparently useless, irregular shaped, rust covered iron into his sculptures. His latest works, exhibited in this show, are also made from those iron scraps. Tawa has created works that bring out the characteristics of the scrap iron and the general qualities inherent in iron fused with the results of cutting, welding, polishing and assembling. Tawa, who has been using iron as his chosen material for many years is well aware that it is possible to discover iron’s overt and covert beauty somehow through the flexibility offered by the material in scrap form.

Tawa always regards the material as his own equal. This is evident through the fact that he specifically refers to each of his works as “Mono; a thing”. A featureless piece of scrap iron, which has just being lying around and rusting, can be “a thing” with a sense of individuality. Another interpretation is that a mere material (Busshitsu) could be transformed into “Bu, Tsu, Shi, Tsu,” by Tawa so that it takes on meaning. “A thing” is defined ontologically in the sense that it embraces qualities such as beauty, perfection, imperfection and deformation, and when bundled together has the ability to suggest personal meaningfulness and the significance of existence through its way of being.

We hope you will enjoy Tawa’s most recent works in this show.

Image: "Mo, No, U, Tsu," 2018, Iron, 30.5×56.7×57.5 cm