1994 - 2000

HARADA, ENVIRONMENT-ART
AN ART OF UNION AND RELATION
To try and grasp architecture or sculpture simply through shapes would not lead to a clear understanding of the meaning and the sensation they convey : it would amount to forget, on the one hand, that the empty space has a meaning and on the other hand, that the meaning not only lies in space as such, but also in its occupancy, in the relations that emanate from it.
Shape, space, relation : an environment.

Though it speaks to the senses, and sometimes to sensuality in its most carnal dimension, it is above all the primal meaning that Harada's work pursues, a meaning that finds its source in the imaginary of creation, in a literal meaning : union, fold, interweaving, mating, birth. A creation appearing on the edges, the lips, in the intervening space.
UNION         
The work of Harada is about shapes but mainly connections, relations. A whole art of relation that disarms the apparent dialectic of his production between simplicity and complexity. The creative act turns over itself like a glove, and questions about its birth, pointing at the immanence and the fundamental tautology of creation.
Harada declines this theme at various levels :
-the union between artwork and nature or city,
-the union between artwork and the beings,
-the friendship of people, from the fusion of feelings to the fusion of cultures.
A long list of countries attest to this cosmopolitism : Japan, France, but also Italy, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Holland, Israel, the United States, India... but also, among hundreds, regions and landscapes : Toscany, Brittany, the Ardennes, the Beauce... or cities : Saint-Malo, Paris, Pietrasanta, Niitsu, Tokyo, Leiden...
INTERBREEDING         
From this human and geographical development, from his own family, beautifuly mix-raced, from his itinerary made of teaching and sharing, Harada builds up the arguments of an initiatory route :
-a life and a work of art like a metaphor in progress, convening in curious alchemy the union of art and the forms of union,
-a path of sympathy with the world and the things as well as the beings, that probably is ' environment-art '. Though this path indeniably and essentially belongs to sculpture, it carries along close ties with landscape art, architecture and urbanism.
One of Harada's adventure is particularly representaive of this aspect of his work : the cycle of the 'earth weaving', a huge and protean sculpture supposed to traverse the globe and spring up from the earth bringing a message of peace; its most spectacular emergence is the Tazawako dam in Japan.
HOSPITALITY         
But to try and feel Harada's personality, as well as the two hundred tons of granite of Tazawako, one would eventually have to mention all the people that approached him, or followed him in his teaching or in the adventure of the construction of his atelier in Frenay-l'Evêque. They have seen the quality of his welcome, his humble and insatiable curiosity, this other art of relation, hospitality, which is a foundation of his art, much more than a 'simple' practice, which he undoubtedly fully possesses.

TETSUO INTIMIST
Whether it be through his big environment-sculptures or through smaller pieces, Harada's artwork involves the public and invites it to participate in a more confidential and even intimate encounter.
FOAMING
In the intimacy of his atelier, away from the collective execution of big environment-sculpture projects, Harada draws, shapes, curves, models and moulds small dimension works. These artworks show unceasing returns, reflexion, dissatisfaction, research, constituting the time and the milestones of a route and of an intrigue fostered in the heart of the atelier, sometimes a peaceful moment after a construction work or a class, somtimes a moment of ' foaming ', a new find that might blossom and meet its public, its environment.
DIVERSITY
There are of course, three-dimensional artworks : proper sculptures made out of bronze, wood, marble, granite or sometimes a simple pebble, differing from monumental sculptures by its small scale. There are also the roughs (research and studies, either with no goal, or for a project or a competition) made from clay or plaster, that prefigurate big sculptures.
And there are drawings and paintings. He works on each of those as a sculptor, deserting the easel for the drawing table or the sketchbook, that never leaves him : vigorous hatchings shape his drawings with large expanses of light and shadow, often revealing a relief and a strong volume. His paintings are adorned with raw material like metal dust, gold, silver, bronze or cobalt, that he dilutes with water and fixes, or with bright color pastels that look like pigment crushed on paper.
MULTIPLICITY
In short, Harada's atelier forms a world gathering a fauna of small paper or stone beings, of great diversity but always born out of the same hand. Every work has a sensual, carnal character, not only through gentle curves, smooth shapes and soft material, but above all through the setting of an imaginary world more or less blatantly erotic, where figures blossom and unveil themselves, hide, unite, bind and interweave in the most various ways.
PUBLIC / PRIVATE
Just like environment-sculptures, the spectator is led to participate : if he cannot physically walk through a sculptural space as it is the case in monumental sculptures, he is this time the guest and the actor of an encounter of a more private kind...
Hubert Lempereur Architect

INTRODUCTION

Depuis le dernier catalogue de 1995, j'ai réalisé un certain nombre de nouvelles sculptures que je voudrais vous présenter dans ce troisième catalogue.
Avant tout, je remercie sincèrement toutes les personnes qui m'ont donné la chance de réaliser ces sculptures. Ce que je suis aujourd'hui, je le dois à la compréhension et à la coopération de nombreuses personnes, à l'influence des grands artistes, et à mon entourage dont ma femme Annie et mes deux fils qui m'ont toujours soutenu.

La sculpture sur pierre est un exercice difficile et très physique. La pierre est lourde, elle est dure. Dans mes réalisations monumentales, le résultat final est quelquefois un peu différent de ce que j'avais rêvé. Alors j'utilise plusieurs moyens d'expression, je continue à peindre, à dessiner et à faire de petites sculptures pour traduire mes idées plus simplement. Cela me donne beaucoup de plaisir, de même que d'exposer mon travail en public.

J'ai eu la chance de travailler dans les pays nordiques, j'ai apprécié la gentillesse, le calme et la sensibilité des gens de ces pays. Cela me rappelle la nécessité et l'importance du voyage. Il est source de nouvelles amitiés et de découvertes culturelles. J'ai beaucoup appris en communiquant et en vivant dans d'autres cultures. Je pense qu'il nous reste encore d'énormes progrès à faire dans le domaine des échanges culturels, qui pour moi sont vecteurs d'amitié et de paix. Les hommes ressentent des sentiments variés de joie, de tristesse, d'amour, de haine et de vanité. La musique, la danse, la sculpture, la peinture sont des créations auxquelles chacun peut-être sensible : je crois que l'art nous procure un plaisir qui nous fait dépasser ces sentiments et atteindre une certaine plénitude.

Dans ma sculpture, je travaille aussi le bois et le bronze mais la puissance, la présence et la délicatesse de la pierre me fascinent depuis toujours. A travers elle, je ressens le temps à l'échelle terrestre. Sculpter la pierre est un honneur et une expérience très touchante; la nature mérite qu'on lui rende hommage.

J'ai cinquante ans, ma réflexion mûrit et j'ai encore beaucoup à dire et à sculpter. Aujourd'hui, je tiens à développer mon thème du " tricot de la terre ". Pour cela, j'ai besoin de votre compréhension et de votre soutient. Je suis très heureux de vous présenter mes récents travaux dans ce catalogue.