AKIKO HIRAI

"This exhibition takes its title from Jacques Prévert’s poem Déjeuner du Matin (Breakfast). The works themselves are tableware intended for the rituals of breakfast, but the title carries another meaning. 

I have long admired Prévert’s poetry. In Déjeuner du Matin, there is almost no psychological description. Instead, the poem simply records a sequence of ordinary actions: coffee is poured, a cigarette is lit, a raincoat is put on, someone leaves. Yet through these quiet observations, profound emotion emerges. Nothing is explained, and nothing dramatic happens, but something deeply human is felt. 

I find the same quality in the novels of Marguerite Duras, where emotional states are rarely described directly, but are revealed through atmosphere, gesture and the passing of time. Some European films are often criticised as films "in which nothing happens." Yet it is precisely within these uneventful moments that a subtle fluctuation begins to appear - a slight shift in balance that quietly touches our emotions.

This sense of fluctuation is what I seek in my ceramics."

- Akiko Hirai

Read more about the exhibition and our visit to Akiko's studio