Exhibition | Hitomi Hosono’s Botanic Skeletons Flourish with Adrian Sassoon Gallery

Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler in association with Adrian Sassoon are hosting an exhibition of contemporary ceramic art by Hitomi Hosono showing her newest delicate porcelain sculptures inspired by the renowned Colefax and Fowler classic fabric collections. The 30-piece exhibition Brook Street: An Artist’s Eye (October 6th – October 27th, 2015) will be held in an 18th century Mayfair townhouse and Colefax and Fowler Showroom. Japanese-born Hosono (previously) got her MA from the Royal College of Art in ceramics and glass and has artwork in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert and the British Museum.

Above Image: Hitomi Hosono, A Large Dancing Feather Leaves Bowl (detail), 2015, 10 1/4in. x 10in, Moulded, carved and hand-built porcelain with interior of dancing sprigs

“Hitomi’s work represents all I admire in contemporary ceramics” says Philip Hooper, design director for Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler. “The craftsmanship, patience, vision and technical skill involved in creating these fragile pieces is almost beyond comprehension. I am thrilled that she has found so much inspiration in 39 Brook Street and that it has been a catalyst in helping her to create many new pieces that will be on show for the first time.”

Sometimes I wonder how classic (and typically uninspiring) styles of the past reemerge as contemporary trends showing retro designs in a new and exciting light. The upcoming exhibition pairing Hosono’s work with the Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler floral patterns may reveal that rarely witnessed catalyzing moment. Hosono’s work perfectly contemporizes the early 20th-century floral trends while adding to the narrative of her art. The colorless skeleton of the motifs are stripped from the antiques and fabrics and rebuilt with impossible complexity into vessels filled with motion.

“One Colefax and Fowler fabric pattern which caught my eye featured beautiful roses and pansies, which appeared to be moving as if blown by a gentle summer breeze,” Hosnono explained. “The softness and delicacy of rose petals is something that I wish to communicate in my own work and has led me to explore new forms and ways of aligning sweeping porcelain petal elements along a curve, emanating from multiple dense centres.”

We see Hosono’s work  through a realty-distorting lens that visualizes raw passing time. It is a seductive concept so elusive that you don’t want to look away, but there is a lingering sense that diverting your gaze is the only way to allow growth. The sculptures are like the Weeping Angels from Dr. Who that can only move when you look away, slowly inching towards you with intent to kill. Hosono’s sculptures are less pointed in their intention, but equally as ghostly. They have a compelling ability to seem void of life and also voraciously flourishing.

Justin Crowe is a Writer and Director of Operations at CFile.

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