Death of the Kiln of the Elephant of the Wood 森の象の窯の死

After his works of the 1970s which tackled the fundamental questions concerning the meaning of sculpture, Shigeo Toya started working on a series under the theme of "Woods." For the artist, "woods" had the exact structure he wanted in a sculpture. It is a mass, and at the same time an aggregation of smaller elements that permits the eye to penetrate, making its outline (surface) fuzzy and allowing its inside and the surrounding space to share a rich intercommunication. This work too, belonging to the series, show resemblances to woods in the complex surface created by rough marks of a chain saw and the aggregate structure made of thirty-four wooden pillars. According to the artist, the overall shape reminiscent of an elephant has emerged naturally as he worked on the piece. The images of kiln, elephant, and woods, however, are interconnected in his mind. The round mounds of a rising kiln overlap the curve of the elephants back, which in turn overlaps the round outline of the woods. The woods represents Toya's philosophy on sculpture, the elephant "(zo)" stands for image "(zo)" in its emerging state, still undefined in the details. And the kiln contains the image of death in being the symbol of fire that consumes the woods.