The Automatic Crystal

The Automatic Crystal is the English translation of the title of an automatic-writing love poem by Aimé Césaire, which Shizuka Maruta uses as a framework on which to base her creative work. As in the style of automatic writing, seemingly random and irrelevant events and thoughts are explored, and forgotten memories and stories evolve through the creative processes and interactions with the surrounding world, such as tangibility of the materials that she uses and the contexts of the wearers. 'Object making' represents ways in which she searches for our sense of attachment to certain objects, in which we can identify ourselves by associating with them. In the process of identification, objects can only be understood and interpreted through personal experiences. Nevertheless, the exploration of 'objects' yields up layers of secret stories, which are often contradictory and inconsistent.

She researches subjects and objects in various ways such as reading and observation but the ways she decides the use of materials and processes are more intuitive and experiential. She is constantly exploring and appropriating different materials for her storytelling. Clay, especially porcelain, has been one of her favourite materials, as she considers it to be highly poetic itself in terms of unpredictability and of the paradox signified by the transformation of clay into ceramic.

As seen in the Press