Professor Koji Hatakeyama
Koji Hatakeyama was born and raised in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture, an area renowned for the ancient art of metal casting. Koji makes exceptionally beautiful cast bronze boxes, with gold or silver interiors. He creates enigmatic, patinated surfaces which represent the landscape, evoking a sense of time. Koji describes bronze as being ‘a material with memories of a thousand years’. The Scottish Gallery has represented Koji Hatakeyama for over fifteen years and he made fifteen boxes to celebrate this longstanding relationship which were exhibited at the Gallery in August 2014.
‘I create contained vessels; I try to convey the sense that something is concealed or hidden within. I try to provoke a sense of the spiritual world in my bronze boxes. The patterns and facets I create on the outside are a direct response to the landscape. I find that when using gold or silver leaf within the interiors, there is a sense of enlightenment when opening the lid, my intention is to enter a different world, a different place. This place has no darkness. My consciousness is veiled in bronze.’ – Koji Hatakeyama
Public Collections include:
Victoria & Albert Museum,London; National Museums Scotland,Edinburgh; Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum, Aberdeen; Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA; The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; Denmark Royal Family, Copenhagen, Denmark; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan; The Japan Foundation, Tokyo, Japan; Takaoka City Museum, Toyama, Japan; Musee Tomo,Tokyo, Japan; and Rakusuite Museum, Toyama, Japan.