堀貴春 昆虫陶芸家展
因為易碎，所以珍貴。
———說的是陶瓷，也是昆蟲。
陶藝家堀貴春以昆蟲作為創作母題，卻從來不為仿真。他深信大自然各種造物的形態已臻至完美，獨一無二、無可複製。於是他嘗試藉著白瓷工藝，在現有昆蟲的外形上加以變奏，組合成前所未見的全新品種，虛構出一隻隻線條流麗、外殼堅硬的白角金龜子、蘭花螳螂。
昆蟲的歷史，可追溯到四億年前。能夠從遠古傳宗接代至今，牠們自有一套生存本領來抵禦天敵：保護色、假眼紋、分泌毒液。在堀貴春的異想世界，昆蟲（以及節肢動物）為了與人類共存、隱匿於人間，更會採取「擬態」的自衛方式，將身軀或演化成器皿（如茶壺、杯子），用螳螂前腳作手柄；或演化成食物（如牛油果、檸檬、西柚），底部生出蜘蛛纖長八足。
作家吳明益談到演化時，曾引用詩人愛默生的話：「（自然）裝備一隻動物，使它能夠生存在地球上，但同時又裝備了另一種動物去摧毀它、消滅它。」物競天擇，適者生存，生物演化是一場永無止境的攻防戰。昆蟲本來只在陸地蠕行，妄想在空中飛翔，簡直癡人說夢；可是，誰又想到，強烈的生之慾望，會令牠們演化出兩雙翅膀來？
如此說來，堀貴春刻下對昆蟲千奇百怪的幻想，或許有朝一日，經過一輪輪演化後，終會成真。
日期：2021年6月8日 - 27日
時間：星期二至日 13:00-19:00（星期一休息）
地點：大坑新村街 15A & 36號 地鋪（Wild Wander & 靜月）
Fragile, yet precious.
– such property of ceramics applies to insects as well.
As a recurring motif, insects in Takaharu Hori’s ceramics are not exact imitations, but variations of the existing species. Having the notion that the beauty of nature is unsurpassed, Hori creates fictitious White Horned Dung Beetles and Orchid Mantises with an artistic twist.
The history of insects can be traced back to 400 million years. Surviving from ancient times to the present, insects have been using different tactics to protect themselves from predators, such as camouflage, eyespot warning and injection of venom.
In Hori’s imagination, through mimicry, insects (and arthropods) gradually evolve into tableware (teapots and cups) and even food (avocadoes, lemons and citruses), with mantises’ front legs as handle and spiders’ legs as bowl-stand.
In his discussion of evolution, writer Wu Ming-yi cited Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words, “She (nature) arms and equips an animal to find its place and living in the earth, and, at the same time, she arms and equips another animal to destroy it.” That is to say, the law of natural selection favours the never-ending process of organic evolution. Primitive insects were terrestrial – who would have thought that their burning desire to survive would evolve wings to fly? Thus, perhaps Hori’s fantasies about insects will come true someday.
堀貴春1996年出生於東京都，2016年畢業於愛知縣立瀬戸窯業高等學校，其後於金澤卯辰山工藝工房進修。自幼喜愛昆蟲，作品多以自己飼養的昆蟲為藍本，如眼鏡蛇枯葉螳螂、蘭花螳螂。
Born in 1996, Tokyo. Graduated from Aichi Prefectural Seto Pottery High School in 2016 and completed his training at Kanazawa Utatsuyama Kogei Kobo (crafts studio) in 2019. Hori has an innate affinity for insects, to the point that he even collects and breeds his own Dead Leaf Mantises and Orchid Mantises, and uses them as references to his ceramic works.
