It is the inherent mesmerising irregularity of their surfaces that makes Akiko Hirai’s Moon Jars such striking pieces. Inspired by Lucie Rie’s Korean object of the same name in the British Museum’s collection, she honours imperfection through her practice. Three different slips are applied over a stoneware base, and crushed porcelain is attached under a transparent or white glaze to achieve various textures. Different movements happen during the firing, giving life to crazed, rough surfaces with flowing glazes that remind of a lunar eruption.
Akiko Hirai at work on a Moon Jar in her Hackney studio, London.
Photo: Courtesy goldmarkart.comProvenance
Private collection, London
Literature
Glenn Adamson, Martina Droth and Simon Olding, eds., Things of Beauty Growing: British Studio Pottery, New Haven, 2017, pp. 168-69, 178-81 for a similar example
Amber Creswell Bell, Clay: Contemporary Ceramic Artisans, New York, 2017, pp. 12-13 for a similar example
Tom Morris, New Wave Clay: Ceramic Design, Art and Architecture, Amsterdam, 2018, pp. 86-87 for a similar example
56
Moon Jar
2021
Grogged stoneware, rugged and cracked porcelain deposits over layered slips beneath running ash glazes.
52 cm (20 1/2 in.) high
Underside with painted artist's signature.
Estimate
£15,000 - 20,000 ♠
Sold for £12,600
Antonia King
Head of Sale, Design
+44 20 7901 7944
Antonia.King@phillips.com
Design
London Auction 2 November 2022
