Untitled,2005
Photo: Taku Saiki
Courtesy 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa

Murayama’s Clumps of Beauty series that the artist started in 2000, are three-dimensional works made from materials such as beads, feathers, artificial flowers, pearls, sequins and such. She condenses these materials that captivate women’s attention with their glittery shine, colors, and textures in her works. Materials, which usually decorate only the surfaces, are used to construct the entire sculpture, covering the internal parts as well as the surface, making the work truly a “clump.” Moreover, this work does not have a front face, commonly identified in a traditional sculpture, and makes visible the result of the random omnidirectional burst of the artist’s intuition. Murayama’s such object deviates from the conventional notion of beauty, and fluctuates on the border of the grotesque or the uncanny. Additionally, in her lacquer ware series, a new venture that she started last year, a fragment of her own body is molded and reproduced with lacquered surface, as if to substitute the warmth of human body for the humidity needed by Japanese lacquer ware; “beautiful” materials are embedded along the line of the veins. The new direction of interweaving the bodily elements with her Clumps of Beauty is manifest in her latest work for this exhibition where she manipulates the motif of a traditional doll. That is, the doll is clothed in a dress that consists of an upper body fitted with clothes, and the bloated skirt with its perimeter reaching 4 meters and the height, 1.2 meter. Used in various traditional activities such as festivals, bunraku theatres (traditional puppet play), children’s play, and fine art, dolls often function as the manifestation and embodiment of the human desires and fantasies. However, here, the fictitious lives and bodies are clothed in Murayama’s pure yet plethoric “beauty.” It is this embellishment of the non-existent, as it were, that is expected to push through towards boundaries which are yet to be realized.

村山自2000年开始的“美丽之块”（奇麗の塊，Clumps of Beauty）系列，是用诸如珠子、羽毛人造花、珍珠、亮片之类材料制作的三维作品。作品中凝聚了这些以其光亮、色彩和质地魅惑女性的材料。这些通常用于装饰表面的材料被用于建构整座雕塑，满覆从里到外，构成一个真正的“块”。而且，这一作品并无传统雕塑可辨识的正面，呈现的是艺术家直觉随机所为、全方位增殖的结果。村山这样的创作从习常的“美丽”观念中脱逸而出，摇弋于“怪诞”与“离奇”的边界。此外，在她去年新试的漆器系列中，仿佛要用人的体温取代日本漆器所需的湿气，她自己身体的一部分被翻模，其表面为漆器造就，沿血管嵌入了“美丽”的材料。将身体元素交织入她的“美丽之块”的新方向，在她为本次展览做的最近作品中亦有显露，在作品中，她巧妙地处理了传统偶人。这个着装偶人，上装合身，鼓起的裙子1.2米长，下摆周长过4米。在多样的传统活动中，诸如节庆、文乐、童玩和艺术中，偶人们常作人们愿望与妄想的表现与化身，然而，在这里，假想的生命与身体包被于村山纯粹却过剩的“美丽”中。正是这种对不存在事物的美化，期翼推向未知领域的边界