Charcoal and everyday life | Koji Itoh

Charcoal and everyday life

How can you link "modern life style" with "charcoal" that has been fostered in the long history of Japanese culture?

When I started to create artworks for the show window, the first thing that came up to my mind was the relationship with "charcoal and everyday life." I wondered how I could create a world using furniture, lighting or other goods we use in our daily life together with Binchotan that can be associated with the image of "bud sprouting spring."
Though several other ideas came up, such image never disappeared from my mind, but instead became a core of the design which developed into a concrete plan.

During my creation, I had some difficulty in processing hard-as-metal-Binchotan into shaped form. Nevertheless, my goal was to realize a world on my mind, aiming to "make the best use of Binchotan' s benefits as well as create its new appearance that no one has ever seen before."

The shaped charcoal perfectly played its role in my work and created a magical harmony with flexible and winding branches of Unryubai plum trees, furniture and lighting and other daily goods in pale tone colors and modern forms.

I now feel very satisfied to somehow find my own way to express the relationship between "charcoal and everyday life" and see my work displayed in one of the show windows representing coming spring in Ginza.

February 15, 2010

Koji Itoh
Finished his master program in Graduate School of Fine Arts,
Tokyo University of Arts.
Owns "Koumoriya," an antique shop and art space.
Engaged in space expression, wall painting and painting.