Platter 1994

This ceramic platter was crafted by Kimura Morikazu, and it is a mesmerizing cosmos in miniature. The dominant visual symbol here is the all-encompassing field of dots, which recalls ancient ideas about the universe. The field of small white and gold-colored spots against a dark background invokes the concept of the cosmos, something seen across countless cultures as the home for the gods. This evokes the ancient Greek concept of the "apeiron," the boundless and undefined source from which all things originate, with the image mirroring the night sky and stars, evoking feelings of boundlessness. This imagery recurs throughout history, from the celestial maps of ancient astronomers to modern scientific visualizations of distant galaxies, each representing a human effort to understand our place in the vast universe. The platter, through its seemingly simple design, engages our collective memory and taps into profound emotional responses, reminding us of our connection to the infinite. The circular shape reinforces this continuity.