Join us at Themes+Projects for the opening night of Kodama by Base 10.

Artist Statement

Kodama is an ongoing body of work realized by Los Angeles-based artists Lindsey Muscato and Joshua Friedman under the collaborative alias Base 10.

Drawing on the hand tools, joinery, methods, and precedents of traditional Japanese timber-framing, these six entries in the Kodama series are made with large-scale timbers culled from salvaged coastal redwood and douglas fir in order to construct sculptural interpretations of seating, shelving, consoles, and tables. The forms are imagined as distilled details, removed from architectural context and re-scaled to relate to the human body, interior space, and historical furniture standards.

The word Kodama can be loosely translated from its roots in Japanese folklore as ‘the spirits of the trees’. Throughout these half-dozen works, the natural properties of the wood that defines them are explored with reverence. Timbers are sawn, chiseled, joined, and finished with yakisugi surface-burning, and finally further blackened with an alchemical patination. This darkening of the wood reveals natural texture and grain in stark relief, at times making thecommonplace material strikingly unfamiliar in quality and character.

Made entirely without glue or fasteners, the exposed joints that are inherent to the works’ construction also become the pieces’ subject. The vertical and horizontal elements of everyday furniture surfaces are explored in simultaneously exaggerated and minimal nodes of connection.

Throughout the series, Kodama engages with the meeting points of craft object and art object, function and beauty, tradition and permutation.

Open to the public; on view from May 7 to June 25, 2022