Kodama is comprised of seven unique large-scale furniture works, constructed of salvaged California redwood and composed using the principles, methods, and hand-tools of traditional Japanese wood joinery and timber-framing. Spanning sculptural abstractions of seating, table surfaces, and consoles, the finished works outwardly present the processes inherent to their creation: timber is hand-cut, -sawn, -chiseled, -planed, -joined, and finally blackened using a combination of natural alchemical patination and yakisugi (or shou sugi ban).
The pieces, expertly devoid of the fasteners and glues typical of furniture-making, are at once coarse and refined, offhand and precise, traditional and contemporary, gently recalling the works of exemplars in minimalist sculpture (e.g. Carl Andre) and mid-century wood-work (e.g. George, and later Mira, Nakashima). Kodama — loosely translated from its context in Japanese folklore as ‘wood spirits’ or ‘spirits of the trees’ — is Base 10’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles.
