Work-in-Progress
An alternative perspective on “enhancing the stone” as Thomas Elias has named the phenomenon, accepts the inevitable interaction between humankind and the environment, affirming the creative process of the collector/artisan. This stone is from the workshop of Sakurai Toshio in Yaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It was purchased as a work-in-progress with the intent of preserving a glimpse into Sakurai’s creative process. The stone, which has a basal cut, was selected for its potential as a classic asymmetrical mountain peak rising above the surrounding foothills. Details of the texture have been roughed out with a grinder. Subsequent stages in the process would include refining these details with cold chisels, sandblasting and acid-washing.
The interesting thing about the stone in this stage of its enhancement is that it suggests a mountain that has been brutalized by irresponsible logging or otherwise unsustainable environmental practices. This was not, of course, Sakurai’s intent. The intervention that my purchase represents, however, allows us to see the stone in this unfinished phase as a metaphor for our wanton exploitation of the planet’s natural resources, and at the same time, because we know that the stone in this state is a snapshot of a process, we can imagine the finished work as representing the ideal remediation of the environment as when forests are replanted, strip-mines are filled and landfills turned into parks.
SubStance #146, Vol. 47, no. 2, 2018 ©2018 Johns Hopkins University Press and SubStance, Inc: pp. 59-67.