Depicting the Subconscious with a Unique Technique


Art critic
Toshihiko Washio

Don't be surprised if I venture a bold description of my first impression of Daïa's bronze sculptures. For some reason they reminded me of the mysterious vision of the Virgin Mary in the grotto at Lourdes. Real space
represents substance, whereas virtual space is not supposed to. However, I can't help seeing that the bare virtual
space looks like a dimly-lit cavern, and that the Virgin makes frequent appearances from the cavern-like light as a symbol of life.

We often see sculptures and busts of famous people at museums, memorial halls and offices around the world.

If delving into the inner personality and focusing on expressing the face is what busts should do, we may possibly regard Daïa's many sculptures on pedestals as a variation that has the basics of form in common with
busts. She seems to overthrow the simplicity of form and the authority of classical busts, to deform and modernize them in her bold but meticulous manner, and to symbolically mold delicate shades of an anonymous
subconscious.

Daïa's works, which place the face or figure on a pedestal, may literally be called figurative sculptures, but the messages from the forms are very abstract and metaphysical. Opposing concepts such as life and death, light and dark, love and hate, form an inventive solid in a delicate balance with her unique " colombin " technique.

This ancient technique, which fell out of use with the advent of the potter's wheel, consists of creating walls of sculpture by means of pieces of clay rolled between the hands and then coiled on top of one another. Her finished works are finally cast in bronze.

Daïa says she is fond of exhibiting in " magical " places such as castles, natural caverns or ancient chapels.

Although these are not present here, as a Frenchwoman she may find Oriental Japan a " magical " place. To me, her bronze sculpture seems like a " magical " creation that molds the human subconscious into form.

Born 1943, in Iwate. Lectures at Surugadai University and the Women's Art University. Author of " Notes on Unique Painters "," Messages to Fifty Contemporary Painters ", " The Collection of Sketches by Souen Yomoda ", and " A Portait of the Painter Kiyoshi Koiaumi ".