Exhibit title: "Object Matters"

Artist statement: "I have been concerned about the environment for a long time, and have tried to practice conservation and sustainability in my own life, as much as I can, while living in Ann Arbor.  Simple things like getting rid of the lawn, planting native and drought-tolerant plant species, watering using the rain barrels set up around my house, growing my own vegetables in my sunny front yard, and composting: these are small steps in my own life.  In the city, it is hard to minimize consumption and to make the best of what we already have, but it is worth trying.

As a sculptor, I consume materials for my personal expression. This is at odds with my work that explores ecological and social issues in an honest, searching way.   Over the last 10 years, it has become harder and harder to follow this same path as I have done before, to consume in order to create.  I have struggled with that and my production has slowed down significantly, until now. Recently, I am rethinking what I do and what I can do.  I have this undeniable passion to make art and a need to make objects. I have decided to follow my intuition rather than putting the intellectual brakes on my creative momentum.  I feel like art can take us places that improve not only our own lives but the lives of others and this world as a whole.

I have always been drawn to the beauty of materials, whether clay, stone, metal or wood.  My creative energy comes from observation of nature and the impermanence of life. I can see this in the growth and decay of rusting iron. Whatever I create will be reintegrated into nature with time.  In making art, I want to acknowledge the moment, and to have a conversation with the materials I am fortunate enough to be given. 

This work is about my appreciation for and celebration of materials and my interpretation of nature.  When I think of the future, I know my work will be part of nature and that makes me a little happier about what I do."

Biographical statement: Sadashi Inuzuka was born in Kyoto, Japan. He completed his undergraduate studies at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada; and in 1987, received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

For more than 20 years, Sadashi has been making large installations that integrate ceramics and mixed media and explore the intersection of human society and the natural world, traditional and innovative processes, art and science. He has worked as an artist in residence in Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Slovakia, and has exhibited nationally and internationally.  Sadashi has received broad recognition for innovation within the field of ceramics, and is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including Pollack/Krasner Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts and The Canada Council for the Arts.  

At the University of Michigan, starting out as an annual series of workshops for K-12 students from Detroit in 1999, Sadashi has since developed a curriculum based on the positive experience of working with people with disabilities.  In his community engagement courses, undergraduate students work closely in the studio with children, adults or seniors with physical and/or cognitive disabilities. In developing these programs, he has worked with the Greater Detroit Agency for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Detroit Public Schools, the Detroit Institute of Art, Washtenaw County Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled, and Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living.

While he had practiced art for many years, it was only after working with people who are blind or visually impaired that Sadashi was ready to fully acknowledge his own visual impairment. As a legally blind person working with clay, Sadashi recognizes the importance of touch in his work and the richness that art can bring to anyone’s life.

Sadashi has been teaching at the University of Michigan since 1996.  He holds the position of Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design and also is a faculty member at the Center for Japanese Studies.