After going AWOL for the past few years, the KAIR interviews return to us, graciously. So without further ado let me introduce     

Iede Reckman

Working with bamboo, Iede constructed an immense geometric sculpture between the cedars at the top of the art mountain, Oawayama.  

His work shows an intense curiosty with materials and congruence and Kamakiri, his new permanent work created for KAIR 2025, was a response to the natural world around him in Kamiyama.

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If you could do the residency again would you do anything differently?
Erm.. Good one!… No I don't think.. No.. I don't regret that I didn't spend my time right. No I don't think so. It's a question I didn't expect! Maybe later it will come to me!

Any advice for future KAIR artists?
I think that something I was not so aware of is that you have all these possibilities to present your work. So there are a lot of settings: you've got the mountain, of course. You've got indoors, you've got old school buildings, and a theatre so if you are working with a more specific plan it could be interesting for some artists. Yeah, so, I was not so aware of it.. But maybe it's also something that I didn't look into much, so it might be clearer on the website but I don't think I noticed it.

What's missing from Kamiyama town? (What does Kamiyama town need?)
Wow.. I'm just wondering if I missed anything that I'm erm.. Maybe this would be nice: a record shop! I really like Monostock so having that more permanently open or it becomes a place where you can turn in goods too, would be fun.

What is the best smell?
I really love the sweet smell, when it's hot, in the forest. The smell of the pine trees. But I noticed that there was also a smell that was quite specifically Kamiyama but I don't know.. I got a hint of it somewhere… then it was lost! And I thought Wow, this is so typical of Kamiyama. But I can't really put my finger on it.

Tell us a memory from your time in Kamiyama.
What I really enjoyed was when my daughter was in the river and she was so enjoying it! That's also something that I enjoyed. She was just so happy, swimming and playing and screaming… yeah. Yeah but there are so many memories that I enjoyed…

If you could collaborate with another artist (alive or dead), who would you choose and why?
Specifically in Kamiyama? That's difficult. All these difficult questions! There is an artist I really like. I saw him in… I think it was.. Was it Documenta in Germany or..? It was John Bock. You cannot really compare it with my work but, just the energy and attitude in it was so amazing. So that is someone I would like to work with. I saw it.. must be 20 years ago when I was still in art academy. I think he might be around 50 or 60 now..

What do you think about this ham?
Is it.. ah it's in Europe… It's a bit sick.. It's so.. So much contrast between the… image and the product and it's making it sort of fun for kids to eat meat. Yeah… so for me it is beyond any sort of normal… Yeah, I'm sort of lost for words.

What is the worst thing you've ever made?
I remember I had to make dinner for a group of people and I used a lot of these dried beans and they just wouldn't cook…! Just terrible… That's something that comes to mind now. And, I helped my wife's father with his camera and I erased all of his photographs! Yeah.. Well…!

If you had more time here in Kamiyama, how would you spend it?
Explore more roads I think. With every new corner you take, there is a new adventure! I have this idea that I have only seen this sort of main road (Route 438) and the main shops along my own daily route to the mountain. But then even just last week we've seen so many new place like the hike up to the rocks (an old shugendou route) and to the ceramic workshop (Kamiyama Kobo). So yeah, that is definitely something I would do more of. But also, I'd renovate an old wooden house!

What's next?
Yeah, I've got a few jobs coming up. So… I'm going to finish a cabinet, I'm gonna build an exhibition for an artist in the Netherlands and with the group of people that are in my studio we made this ceramic workshop and we installed a big kiln and I've prepared a work that is still in progress. I've got 200kg of clay so I hope I can make a big ceramic sculpture that will just fit in that kiln. And also, yeah, going through my photos, combining them in some documentation, updating my website, things like that… yeah.

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Thank you very much for your hard work and time!
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