Jewellery & Metal (MA)

Taizen Wada

About

Taizen Wada is a Japanese artist based in Tokyo. He has created a new type of art piece by reinterpreting traditional techniques such as patination and engraving that has been trained for many years. His main work is jewellery, but in recent years he has been creating works that incorporate painting and calligraphy methods into larger-scale metal works.

Education;

2017-2020 Royal College of Art, Jewellery and Metal, London UK

1987-1990 Hiko Mizuno College of jewelry, Metal Craft Dept, Tokyo Japan

Training and Work Experience:

2019- Studied under the professional Painter, Artist Annalisa Colombara

2018- Studied under the professional Calligrapher, Senhou Tomono

2001-2004 Studied under a stone setting artisan and a traditional craftsman

1995- launched jewellery brand "WADA" Started domestic deployment in Japan

1990-1993 TASAKI Co., Ltd.; Design & Craft Room, Tokyo Japan

Awards;

2013 42ed Japan Traditional Metal Craft Competition, Tokyo Japan

2012 Japan Jewellery Art Competition 2012, Tokyo Japan

2010 Japan Jewellery Art Competition 2010, Tokyo Japan

2010 39th Japan Traditional Metal Craft Competition, Tokyo Japan

2009 38th Japan Traditional Metal Craft Competition, Tokyo Japan

Shows;

2007 Exhibited at the BASELWORLD 2007 The Watch and Jewellery Show, Basel Switzerland

2004 Exhibited at the PRET A PORTER PARIS “CASABO”, Paris France

2003 Exhibited at the PRET A PORTER PARIS “CASABO”, Paris France

2002 Exhibited at the PRET A PORTER PARIS “CASABO”, Paris France

Solo Exhibition;

2006 WADA HAMANASU EXHIBITION at UNITED ARROWS, Tokyo Japan

1994 WADA JEWELRY EXHIBITION at BEAMS TOKYO, Tokyo Japan

Exhibition;

2018 “Red Thread” Jewellery & Metal, at RCA Dyson Gallery, London UK

Contact

ku.ca.acr.krowten@adaw.oanusay

moc.ukayukahs@adaw

website

Instagram

vimeo

Degree Details

School of Arts & Humanities

Jewellery & Metal (MA)

When I was a child, I felt compelled to collect fragments and debris from the riverbank, things of unknown origin. Things that were close to me and things that drifted from far away met me at the waterside. They become new, a metaphor away from their past. By the riverbank, I was in a space of infinite imagination. The waterfront is a place for me to collect inspiration. Since ancient times in Japan, the people known as “Kawara-mono” lived on riverbanks. They were outsiders, unregistered, existing apart of mainstream society. They were creators, engaging in performing arts, landscaping and dyeing crafts, etc. They did the jobs that ordinary people did not want to do, such as executions. The riverbank is a land that is always changing and disappearing. Every day may flow at an extraordinary time, and new imagination may always be created.

I want to be such a “Kawara-mono” in the world, not a metalsmith in Japan.

scalet neck

Scarlet copper is a traditional Japanese technique that artificially induces a crimson oxide film by quenching copper. The colour contains random elements, so different textures appear like a landscape.
At one point, I tried to cut the scarlet copper plate itself to make a space directly from the flat plate.

Medium:

copper, silver, paper box

Size:

250x91x1.2

art jewellery copper crimson emotion metamorphosis necklace neckpiece plate red space transform wearable

the moon & the window

the moon & window

These works are wall pieces also neckpieces with the theme of the moon in the windows and the window in the moon. It has the function of transforming into various shapes.
My painting teacher said to me, "The screen is the window of your mind, draw your emotions in it." I drew a round moon as an emotional metaphor. Because the moon is not a perfect sphere, for me, it seemed to represent imperfect emotion.
Anyone can see the moon through a window, but it is difficult to see the window of the moon, the space that opens up in our emotions.

Medium:

neckpiece / steel, gold leaf, silver leaf wall stand / mixed media

Size:

Square 390x390x10, Round 410x410x10

art jewellery black emotion function gold metamorphosis silver space the moon transform wall hanging window

untitled

— Using iron plates collected from the River Thames. I engrave the rhythm of the Thames flow and waves into rusty steel (created by the passage of time), and I made jewellery.

Thames engraving — For me, engraving is not just a technique, but an activity of expression that connects the mind and body. I considered how to engrave free from Japanese or European style.

untitled

When I first started studying hand engraving, I constantly failed.
Nowadays we have technology such as laser welding where mistakes can easily be removed. When I first began making jewellery we had little modern technology. At this time I was absorbed in working with the tension of "drawing a line that I could never draw", which was always on a new road. It took many years of experience, I engraved various things. For me, at that time, learning the engraving was a gift. I believe that working with our hands links the body and the mind, and this work can convey something beyond words.
Through this new body of work I engrave my feelings using body movement.
For craftsmen, it is important to make use of computers and to practice new techniques, but it is necessary for craftsmen in the future to be able to interact with direct things and express themselves, drawing from their own life experiences away from technical dominance.
I will now express the flowing infinity of the Thames River in this new found way, my own way.

Medium:

steel, iron

Size:

1920x95x1.2

art jewellery emotion engraving function iron long metamorphosis neckpiece space steel Thames transform

painting the emotion

emotion makes the space

metal painting

Using tin and hand engraving, the wave of the Thames is expressed on an iron plate, one is a painting, the other is for a three-dimensional body piece, where the painting can take on the body.
One stormy day, the Thames water surface of the rapids was silvery and wavy, and the stream at the bottom of the river was jet black and looked powerful. It seemed like an unbreakable boundary and I was scared. The moment the emotion crosses the boundary and enters a new space, friction and stimulus occur, which gives us new inspiration.
This work is a painting, a space that the wearer can enter, and it is a jewellery that can leave its trace as a wall piece.

Medium:

body piece / steel, tin wall stand / mixed media

Size:

(770x320x0.5) x 2pieces

art jewellery emotion engraving function metamorphosis painting steel Thames tin transform wall hanging wearable sculpture

flat neckpiece

Medium:

steel, tin

art jewellery body piece emotion function metal metamorphosis space steel tin transform wearable wearable sculpture

The theme of this work is the energy released at the moment life ends, a nothing, an infinity that spreads beyond a human lifetime. I was attracted to the rusty iron debris by the River Thames and picked them up. You can see the iron's passage of time by the riverside from its decayed appearance. I thought it too seemed to age like a human life. However, scientifically, the state of iron rusting is the action of iron returning to the state of iron ore. Before smelting, iron is an ore, so during the rusting process iron is being released back into nature. I felt a similarity between human energy and that of the rusty iron, both being emitted back into nature and their substances disappearing. It overlapped with the existence of a human's vanishing soul. I want to express it in my work.

In this work, I assembled the material only with magnets, and almost no processing methods. Only a technique to control the colour of the rust was applied. At the time of filming, I used magnets and decided the shape of the work in layers to match the aura of the model. Adding iron to humans, like placing flowers in the vase.

photo by Jyukan Tateisi

Medium:

Iron, magnet, SWAROVSKI

ageing art jewellery black iron body piece iron metal transform wearable

Scarlet copper is a traditional Japanese technique that artificially induces a crimson oxide film by quenching copper. I conducted an experiment in which I drew a painting from the colours and patterns created by chance and made the expression into a ring.

Medium:

copper, silver, 18K gold

art jewellery copper crimson gold jewellery red ring scarlet silver

chapter 4

paper peep show

I produced videos and installations. In video production, I integrated into 2 videos from 4. And finally, to 1 from 2. It followed a European, pre-era, alchemy-based sequence of integration. I projected the video on the Thames river in the night and recorded it. I kept on recording using the camera. I paid attention to integrate these two videos into one by a method called 'Paper Peepshow' which can be put in a portable box. I projected the video from both sides, I made an experimental method that I can peek at the works on both riversides or this world and another.

Medium:

mixed media

alchemy emotion fire Installation layers mud mudlarking Paper Peepshow riverbank video water wind

23 July 2020

2:00 (GMT + 0)

Zoom

Jewellery & Metal Panel Discussion: Thinking in Metal

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Taizen Wada

About

Statement

Emotion in the space -scarlet necklace-

Medium:

Size:

Emotion in the space -the moon and the window-

Medium:

Size:

Emotion in the space -Thames engraving-

untitled

— Using iron plates collected from the River Thames. I engrave the rhythm of the Thames flow and waves into rusty steel (created by the passage of time), and I made jewellery.

untitled

untitled

Medium:

Size:

Emotion in the space -emotion makes the space-

Medium:

Size:

Flat neckpiece

Medium:

Infinitive black

Medium:

Scarlet ring

Medium:

Alchemy of the riverbank -Video and Paper Peepshow-

Medium:

Events