Untitled (Cube)

A piece of ancient zelkova wood, weathered by wind and rain for 350 years. Its surface has aged into a silvery soot-like tone, carrying a quiet solemnity. Yet just a few millimeters beneath the cut surface, a fresh layer of wood appears, what the artist describes as “the life of the tree still remaining.”

This work brings into coexistence the dry, timeworn texture shaped over centuries and the newly revealed, vibrant surface exposed at the moment of cutting. It is, in essence, a visualization of time itself. Through these six small cubes, woodworker Masaru Kawai poses a fundamental question: What is craft? What emerges here is a profound reverence for wood as a material, beyond form or function. His gaze is always directed toward the depths of the forest where the material once grew, toward the quiet the rhythms of nature.

The dry, coarse surface of aged wood and the moist vitality of the exposed cross section. Through this striking contrast, the viewer is invited into the deeper layers of the artist’s thinking, an experience that quietly stirs curiosity.