Dai Ban

Becoming a Dark Thing in the Night (Minimalist Abstract Black Wall Sculpture)

2019

Dai Ban received his education from Musashino Art University in Tokyo and currently lives in the Berkshires. With a background that includes theater set design, model making for TV commercials and films, and jewelry design, Ban’s abstract sculptures break conventional standards, serving balance between reflection and reprieve. Ban came to the United States in 1985 and moved from New York City to the Berkshires in 1993. As a trained artist, Ban used to make figurative sculptures. Ban always prepared sketches, maquettes and plans. Ban knew in advance what the sculptures would look like in the end. Statements explaining them accompanied these works. They had their meanings in place, already fixed behind them. There were no surprises, no conversation between him and the piece being made. Ban was simply recreating with his hands what he had already finished in his head. When Ban realized this and felt how limited it was, he stayed away from making any sculpture for nearly 10 years. In Ban’s work now, the form comes first. Ban chose the simplest tools and materials for the process: a Xacto knife, a straightedge, hot glue and form core board. The process goes fast. Ban avoids intentional thoughts. What happens then seems to emerge from some deep subconscious reservoir: maybe from childhood, maybe from an unconscious feeling in the moment, maybe from something beyond this lifetime. Ben just let it come out until the form feels right. There is a sense of freedom from conscious deliberation. Ban creates for himself a three-dimensional blank canvas with which he is in conversation. Subtle colors come in; Ban may add more colors, take colors out, conversing back and forth. During this process, the light changes; the form looks different even when nothing has changed; the sensed conversation changes, the meaning changes. Finishing the surface is a discipline in itself. Ban avoids decorating it but tries to keep it pared down to what is essential. With hundreds of iterations of the same movements, the same strokes, Ban applies acrylic compound to each surface until he finds the right colors, the right shades, the right textures. Finally, the title crystallizes as a hint to what is happening in his piece. The conversation keeps going, between him and the unknown, until everything is settled into place. Ban is not sure if he expects people to see his work in any special way. Ban certainly doesn't want to impose his ideas. Still, when Ban feels his sculpture is right, he is hoping the viewer will too, and this will allow their first impressions to subside and pre-conceived notions to fall away. Then, perhaps, a deep unconscious process will unfold in response. Each piece, itself a record of a conversation, hopefully, will call the viewer into his or her dialogue with it, where meaning is created in the moment.