THE ART OF THE NEW
WORDS: Kim Newth
In Avenues ‘Fashion issue’ of October 2012, Takaaki Sakaguchi was one of five featured designers credited with ‘dressing the city in style’. Back then, his eponymous label was busy supplying not only the local market but also stores across Australia.
Why then, in 2015, did the label’s founder call time on his highly successful fashion enterprise? And what is he up to now?
‘Sakaguchi’ had started as a dream, stitched together on a borrowed sewing machine in an Ōtautahi flat that was Takaaki’s first home after moving to Aotearoa from Japan in 1998. The Osaka-born creative was already an accomplished fashion designer by then, having made it to the top as head designer at eminent Japanese fashion house Koshino. Within a few years of launching his label in Christchurch, he had conquered New Zealand Fashion Week and was running his own flagship store in Merivale.
Today, Takaaki looks back on those years as a wonderful adventure with no regrets about having closed the label down after 17 years in business.
“It was a very hard decision. I loved the brand, but I was finding it more and more difficult to find the beautiful materials I needed to feel inspired and coupled with that, I needed a break from the pressure that comes with having to make a new style every season.”
Over the past seven years, Takaaki has completely transformed his creative practice having discovered a new outlet for his originality: ceramics. It has been a liberating experience for him to explore an art form where the options are literally endless.
“In the world of ceramics, you can make whatever you want in any colour and any shape. I had been curious about the Canterbury Potters Association and started going to classes there. The tutor was fantastic and had a lot of knowledge on technique, yet I was also encouraged to make something in my own style. I found that very exciting.”
Takaaki displayed his kiln-fired work for the first time at a combined exhibition (with Andrew Carran, Revisions) last August at Christchurch’s Form Gallery. Even though last year’s Covid lockdown meant the exhibition had to close earlier than expected, Takaaki was delighted at how it went. “Even before opening, half the pieces had been sold – it was amazing; I feel very lucky that people like the work.”
A self-proclaimed reductionist at heart, Takaaki’s ceramic art practice channels Japanese art and aesthetics such as wabi-sabi that implicitly accepts imperfection and transience.
“You see a lot of simplicity in Japanese traditional art, and that’s something I really love, along with texture and natural, earthy colours. With every piece I make, I want it to be very fresh and new. The right piece will start a conversation and be inspiring for other people.”
Takaaki received the Avice Hill Memorial Prize in 2017 and was a finalist in the Waiclay Ceramics Award 2019. Last year he was a featured artist at The Arts Centre sculpture festival exhibition.
This month, he is in a group exhibition at Form Gallery (Hemisphere, April 2–29) and later this year will again be taking part in The Arts Centre’s sculpture festival.