鉄を素材として、時のなかで「変わりゆくもの、変わらず在り続けるもの」をテーマに制作を行う。

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主に可燃性ガスのアセチレンと酸素を利用するガス溶接溶断を用いた独自の手法により、空間に鉄のドローイングを連想させる彫刻作品を制作。ガス溶断で鉄に熱を加えて切断し、切断した際に発生する鉄くず同士をガス溶接で溶かしながら繋げる手法によって、空間に自由なかたちと余白を生み出していく。

 

また、2015年から故郷岐阜県の伝統工芸品・美濃手すき和紙に、鉄粉や錆、金箔、金糸などの金属素材を用いたドローイングを制作。かたち在るものが朽ちていく美、華麗と枯淡という相反する儚さがゆるやかに溶け合う空間を創造する。

 

日本の伝統と革新、表現と技術の融合を試みることにより、金属彫刻における新たな価値創造の可能性を追求している。

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Mai Horayama was born in 1992 in Gifu, Japan. Mai graduated from Tama Art University in 2017 with a Bachelor’s degree in sculpture. She is also a top graduate of the graduate school at the same university in 2020. She is a member of the Japan Artists Federation.

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Using steel as a material, she creates works on the theme of “Things that are ever-changing and never-changing in the course of time". She is creating steel sculptures reminiscent of drawings in the margins of space, using a unique method of expression  through gas welding and fusing, mainly using the flammable gases acetylene and oxygen. 

The steel is cut by hand cutting with gas fusing. The steel scrap generated when cutting is called "slag". The "slag" is then melted together by gas welding, and the joining technique creates a free and flexible shape.

She also creates drawings using metallic materials such as steel powder, steel rust, gold powder, and gold leaf on Mino Washi paper, a traditional craft in her hometown of Gifu Prefecture. She creates a space that shows the ephemerality of splendor, where the contradiction of decay and splendor are gently blended together.

 

Mai is pursuing the possibility “a new value creation" in metal sculpture by attempting to fuse Japanese tradition and innovation, expression and technology.