An eternal islander, Kaori Juzu is an artist on the fringe who is forging her own path. In her hands the enamelled piece is no longer a two-dimensional surface, strictly divided by metal strips. Instead, the artist abolishes all boundaries to let the abstract forms, be they geometric or organic, unfold in space and play with the variations of light. She then applies enamel powder to their surface, interrupting the fusion just in time to preserve the brilliance and texture of the grains, according to a process she has developed herself. To the both respectful and bold appropriation of this ancestral technique, Kaori Juzu adds the consummate skill of a colourist, playing with contrasts and the refinement of a colour palette borrowed from the delicate shades of Nature during Spring and Autumn.
     The enamelled treasures of Kaori Juzu are micro-revelations whose attraction never fades away. These are works of an intense simplicity that seem to draw us far from the echoes and clatter of the world.
The selection of her artworks by the Mori Museum adds to a long list of awards and successes gained along the years. Recently, Kaori Juzu was selected as one of the top 4 in the category of crafts and design by the Danish Arts Foundation and was awarded an important work grant. One of her latest works, the installation “108 POINTS OF VIEW” is currently shown at the BIENNALE FOR CRAFT AND DESIGN at Koldinghus in Denmark.
     For her showcase at the Mori Art Museum shop, Kaori Juzu presents a new series of earrings especially designed for the museum and paying an hommage to its name: MORI=森=WOODS. Visitors will also have the opportunity to see larger works, like one-of-a kind brooches, along with some of the new pieces from her series “108 POINTS OF VIEW”. This corpus refers to a significant number of the Buddhism. All over Japan at midnight on New Year’s eve, Buddhist temples ring their bells a total of 108 times to free the human beings from their Kleshas / 108 defilements. Kaori Juzu drew her inspiration from this ritual to create 108 unique miniature wearable artworks (which can be worn as earrings or pins) by conforming to a self-imposed rule. During the lockdown caused by the Corona crisis, she indeed re-used some remaining and left apart materials from previous works, as a way to materialize a purifying process, an artistic path to resilience.