Zetsu 4-a

The term ‘Zetsu’ used by Nishida as a title for his works from 2001 onwards has a range of meanings including destruction, absoluteness, finality and nothingness. The overall sense is that of intensity, fierceness and the apocalyptic. This is certainly the impression one gains from what are extraordinary manifestations of a mode of making that goes even further than the extreme approaches to claywork taken by modern and contemporary Japanese giants such as Yagi Kazuo (1918-79), Koie Ryōji (1938-) and Akiyama Yō (1953-), all of whom are represented in the V&A.

For Nishida, the kiln was an alchemical instrument into which he would manoeuvre massive steel moulds filled to the brim with varying configurations of unfired porcelain rods and discs packed into place with powdered glaze materials. Firing would take place between 1200 and 1300 degrees centigrade, the length of the firing being dependent on the mass of the material in the kiln, which could be as much as 1000 kilograms. Through experience Nishida learned to judge when the energy absorbed differentially through the ceramic mass and the heat absorption gradient within it was such that the degree of fusion of the powdered glaze materials varied from completely to over-fired on the outside, to partially or barely fired towards the centre.

The next step, once the fused mass had cooled and been removed from its steel housing, was to work at its fault-lines with a hammer and split it apart to reveal its interior, rather as a geologist wields a pick to crack open a specimen of rock. In the case of Zetsu no. 4, of which 4-a (FE.76-2016) and 4-c (FE.75-2016) are two formerly conjoined sections into which the originally spheroid form was split apart, a large amount of the glaze material at the centre remained powdery and had to be discarded. The large rounded ‘fragments’ that remained consist of fully vitrified, glassy-looking exteriors filled with layers of softer-textured, semi- to non-fused material.