Pottery of indivisible emotions that dwell in katakana

Nagisa Shiraiis an artist who sublimates people's indivisible emotions into works of art through his unique expressions.

Shirai grew up in the countryside surrounded by nature, but despite the rich scenery, he felt suffocated by the feeling of confinement and peer pressure that is typical of the countryside. In the atmosphere of stagnation and an endless daily life, it has become commonplace for people to keep a lid on their true selves. Pottery helped me face my inner self and realize what I really wanted to do and how I could express my emotions.

Although Shirai was initially attracted to pottery making, he gradually felt the limits of emotional expression and sought a more free form of expression, taking on the challenge of creating three-dimensional works, which led him to delve deeper into his inner self.
Shirai has established a method of expressing his works by using katakana, which can be seen as more inorganic than kanji or hiragana, and pasting countless katakana on the surface of all his works in order to incorporate his own inseparable feelings that cannot be expressed into words into everyday objects. This gave Shirai's work its own uniqueness.

With the spread of SNS, face-to-face interaction has faded and the weight of words themselves has been diluted, and Shirai's work has become a vessel for projecting the chaotic emotions of our time through the inorganic nature of katakana.
Different interpretations arise depending on the recipient's experience, and Shirai's work has a breadth that includes both positive and negative aspects.

For Shirai, the significance of his work is to give form to the thoughts and emotions hidden in daily life, and to serve as a spokesperson for modern people.
Shirai's pottery is an attempt to clearly express the ``shapes of the heart'' that live in everyday life while confronting indivisible emotions.
Through this process, Shirai's works aim to visualize our complex emotions and have the power to question our hearts.
This is the essence of Shirai's chosen method of expression, and the reason why his works resonate with people.

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