Walking into the Lacoste Gallery in Concord, MA I was struck by the  lightness, strength and movement in the work of Shozo Michikawa, a Japanese ceramicist who combines both slab and wheel methods to create pots resembling objects formed by nature.

Michikawa is “inspired by the power and energy of nature in its every form” and the belief that “nature will  ultimately triumph over science and civilizations,” he writes. “The beauty that nature offers as seen in the formation of rocks, mountains, deserts and the seas are unparalleled and conversely natural disasters brought on by tsunamis, earthquakes and erupting volcanoes cannot be underestimated.”

Accordingly, Michikawa throws clay to build block-like formations on a potter’s wheel, and, often, places a stick in the interior of the form and spins the wheel in different directions–thus creating, according to Atlanta’s  Catherine Fox “torqued, spiraling forms and a sense of dynamism.”   The pots, some of which resemble rocks, riverbeds, or other natural formations, may appear to be as unpredictable as forms created by natural forces.

Writing in Artsati, Fox  describes the pots as “irregular in shape, asymmetrical, roughly textured, and deceptively primitive.” She points out that, ” Unlike most ceramists, who center the clay o n the wheel and build up the walls of the vessel with two hands — one on the interior, one on the exterior — Michikawa effects his sculptural forms by working the decentered clay from the inside out, often poking the interior with a stick to get the shape he wants.” After spinning it on the wheel, Michikawa may “cut away at the exterior with a wire to shape the rodlike protrusions, wedges, flaps and origami folds that give his work an earthy tactility.”

Each piece is then faceted and glazed to mimic the effects of nature, according to Lucy Lacoste, the Concord gallery proprietor.”Built on the potter’s wheel and often twisted on an internal axis, ” the works are sculptural yet retain a core of functional pottery.” That functional core is critical, the artist says, because pottery has been so integral to people’s lives in Japan.”.

Shozo Michikawa at Lacoste Gallery, Concord June 4, 2017

Michikawa was born on the Island of  Hokkaido, the most northern area of Japan, in 1953. After graduating from Aoyama Gakuin University in 1975, he worked in business until evening classes “gave him a passion for clay,” according to a gallery writeup.  Ultimately, he settled in Seto,  one of the sites of the six ancient kilns in Japan.   His exhibitions are held widely in Japan and also internationally, such as Philippines, Mongolia, France, USA, and UK.
“Michikawa’s is a unique talent based on his personal expression of pottery as an art form, Lacoste says.  “His voice is contemporary and poetic. ”

 At  the Lacoste Gallery, 25 Main Street
Concord, MA until June 28, 2917.

–Anita M. Harris

Anita Harris is a Cambridge writer, photographer and communications consultant based Cambridge, MA.
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, also located in Cambridge.

Darcy Badali, Lacoste Opening

Earlier this month,  I much enjoyed the opening of  Lacoste Gallery’s current exhibit, “The Transcendent Vessel,” which features astonishingly-large thrown stoneware vessels by California ceramicist Darcy Badiali.

I especially liked the delicacy of his works, which, in some cases, resemble giant eggshells. Other pieces, he explains, “are reminiscent of plants, stones coral and other objects found in nature, ” with surfaces that look or feel like elephant skin or craters.  While the forms have their origin in function, ” he adds, “the scale lends itself to sculptural issues of space.

Darcy and Tracy Badiali, and assistant

Badiali’s works are included in the permanent collections of Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation for the Arts, Alta Loma, CA, American Museum of Ceramic Art, Los Angeles, CA, Kathryn H. Herberger Museum, Tempe, AZ, Daum Museum of Art, Sedalia, MO, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO, Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT, and in Shigaraki, Japan in the Shiro Otani Collection. 

At the Lacoste Gallery in Concord MA through May 27. 

—Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is a writer and photographer based in Cambridge, MA.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, also in Cambridge.

Yesterday, I was privileged to view a remarkable documentary film shown at the Griffin Museum of Photography. As a  photographer/artist and writer, I sometimes wonder if there’s a point to all of the time and energy I put into my crafts. The film, called “A Single Frame,” produced by  Austin businessman and filmmaker Jeff Bowden, makes clear that one can never know the tremendous impact a work of art may ultimately have.

While on a family  trip to Dubrovnik in 2007, Bowden’s daughter  suggests going to an exhibit showing the work of female war photographers. Bowden is much taken with a photograph of a refugee boy taken during the war in Kosovo by  a young French photographer, Alexandra Boulat.

Driven by the  haunting image, Bowden sets out to find the child–who, if still alive would have been in his twenties or early thirties. Bowden’s search takes him from Texas to Paris, where he learns that Boulat passed away due to natural causes not long after the war. He tracks down a group of photographers she worked with, and, in conversations with them and others who were impacted by the war, learns of the devastation it caused, and of the post-war culture of the Balkans. Joining  forces with an experienced war-time fixer, he embarks on a search for the boy.

Rather than give away the outcome of the search, I’ll just say that  A Single Frame, released in 2015,   humanizes and educates distant audiences about the origins and impacts of the cruel war that lasted from 5 March 1998^[8] until 11 June 1999 in the former Yugoslavia. (As described on Wikipedia, the war was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (by this time, consisting of the Republics of Montenegro and Serbia), which controlled Kosovo before the war, and the Kosovo Albanian rebel group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), with air support from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and ground support from the Albanian army). Effective in multiple dimensions, the film shows that one never knows where a  work of art might lead, whom it might affect, and how its spirit might live on to inform, influence and inspire future generations. Bravo!

–Anita M. Harris

Link to trailer 

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, in Cambridge, MA.

Much enjoyed last week’s opening of the Koch Institute’s 2017 Image Awards Exhibition. The exhibit, dubbed “with/in/sight”  includes 10 scientific images chosen as best-in-class from among some 120 entries from MIT life scientists and their collaborators across the country–and one from Ireland.

The display, in the public galleries at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, is the Koch’s seventh in as many years. Its goal is to celebrate “the diversity of biomedical research at MIT and offers insight into the important role that science and engineering play in our complex and ever-changing world,” according to a Koch brochure.

The images are printed on t-shirt material stretched across frames back lit with LEDs. They are striking artwork in themselves– and showcase some of the most exciting work under way in the cancer research arena.

“Making Waves: Delivery for Ageless Skin.” Koch Institute, Harvard University, Mass General Hospital.

“Making Waves” conveys research on non-invasive sound waves that carry genetic material through protective layers of skin, transferring genes to cells whose genetic clocks have been turned back by the nucleic acids they have received– in order to reverse skin-aging. Credits go to Carl Schoellhammer, Denitsa Milanova, Hamberto Trevino, Cody Cleveland, Jeffrey Wyckoff, Anna Mandinova, Giovanni Traverso, Robert Langer, and George Church.

Whithead Institute: Snap Chat: A Flatworm Creates a New Profile

At the Whitehead Institute, Samuel LoCascio, Kutay Deniz Atabay and Peter Reddien are studying planarian flatworms to learn more about how they regerate. Each color in their image represents a different layer of neurons in the flatworm’s head.

Downstream Dreams: Investigating Melanoma in a Zebrafish: Koch Institute, MIT

Dahlia Perez and Jacqueline A. Lees are studying zebrafish to provide insight into melanoma. This image shows the organization of zebrafish cells in their normal state. Next, biologists will mutate a single gene known to initiate a certain melanoma in order to determine its “downstream” effects.

Center: “Minding the Gap: Studying the Tumor Extracellular Matrix,” Koch Institute

Tumor Penetrating Nanoparticles Infiltrate Cancer Cells, Koch Institute

Steffen RIckelt and Richard Hynes of the Koch Institute are studying not the clusters of brownish colon cancer metasteses shown in the image, screen, but, rather, the “seeming neutral” tissue matrix around them. The goal is determine how the matrix impacts the progression of tumor cells navigating a complex network of cells and proteins.

Langliang Hao, Srivatsan Raghavan, Emilia Pulver, Jeffrey Wyckoff and Sangeeta Bhatia of the Koch Institute are using  biocompatible nanoparticles (yellow) to target and penetrate clusters of cancer cells (pink) with the goal of delivering treatment.

Body of Knowledge: Self-Organized Brain Cells, MIT Department of Biological Engineering and Koch Institute at MIT.

Colin Edington, Iris Lee and Linda Griffith of MIT are involved in the Griffith lab’s “Human on a Chip,” project, in which many different”mini organs”, developed from stem cells in matrix, are linked together in a bioreactor platform. The researchers are studying interactions of multiple organs and the cross between them in order to develop new disease treatments. Shown here are neurons (green) and astrocytes (red).

Microfluidics for the Masses, Measuring Cell Growth Rates, Koch Institute

Selim Olcum, Nathan Cermak and Scott Manalis are using microfluidics to measure the response of cell masses to drugs. Their image shows fluid filled channels (bottom) connected to tiny mass sensors shaped like hollow diving boards (top); the sensors’ whose  vibrations precisely reveal the mass of individual cells passing through them. As treated cells flow across the array of sensors, each cell is weighed multiple times, thereby revealing how quickly the mass of individual cells is changing. Researchers are beginning to use this method to predict optimal treatment strategies for individual patients.

Hashtag No Filter,: Visualizing Breast Cancer Conversations. Royal COllege of Surgeons in Ireland and Wellcome Images.

My favorite image does not show cells, nor was it submitted by an MIT lab. Rather, it visualizes twitter conversations about breast cancer carried out by a network of connected cancer patients and their loved ones, patient advocates, health care professionals, and researchers. The image, by Erie Clarke, Richard Arnett and Jane Burns of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland,  represents 92, 915 tweets posted over an eight-week period. It is from the Wellcome Images collection.

Other images not included here display pathways taken by metatastic lung cancer cells over time and  ovarian cancer cells as they break through the abdominal wall.

I’m the first to admit that these photos do not do justice to the real images–nor do they adequately convey the amazing convergent technologies –including imaging–used to carry out the research.

The gallery,  at street level in the Koch Institute, 500 Main Street, in Cambridge, is open to the public at no charge from 8-6 Monday-Thursday, and until 4 pm on Friday. The images are also visible from the sidewalk, outside.

Through March 2018.

Anita Harris is a writer, photographer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA.
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and market development firm located in Kendall Square, Cambridge.

Yesterday, the news from DC was not good, nor was the weather, nor was my writing! So I quit work at 3:30 and headed for the Kendall Square T. where I came upon the delightful Keytar bear, who immediately raised my spirits. I’ve long wanted to share the work of Boston area street musicians– Keytar said it would fine to post a video. I’m hoping this will be the first of many–and would welcome your contributions!

Anita M. Harris

Anita Harris is a writer and communications consultant based in Kendall Square, Cambridge.
New Cambridge Observer is ia publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and market development firm baswed in Cambridge, MA.