The art exhibition, curated by Joseph Walsh and Wahei Aoyama, celebrates the two countries’ cultural partnership and robust handmade heritage
In an increasingly digital world we are drawn even more to thoughtfully handcrafted items. Showcasing artisan-made sculptures, celadon-glazed ceramics, textiles, basketry and more, RINN/輪 Ireland and Japan: A Dialogue on Making, Place and Time explores artistic collaboration between the two countries while emphasizing the culture of making physical, tactile objects by hand.
The exhibition is traveling to Cork, Ireland on 26 July after premiering in April in Tokyo as part of Ireland Japan 2025. Curated by Joseph Walsh and Wahei Aoyama of A Lighthouse Called Kanata gallery, it includes a collection of original, personal works by Japanese and Irish artists and architects, united by their common bond of the handmade. It will be on display at The Glucksman gallery on the University College Cork campus through November 2025.
As for the name of the show, the word “rinn” shares an unexpected commonality for both cultures: in Japanese, it means circularity; in Gaelic, it means place or a point. For curator and artist Joseph Walsh, who has an eponymous design studio in coastal County Cork, rinn resonates with themes central to his art practice, like the importance of place and the present moment. There’s a “nice connection of cycles through time and sense of space in these kinds of topics that keep coming up within the artists’ works,” Walsh says.
The concept of human connection and sharing knowledge resonates with Walsh and his work as both an artist and curator. “I think it’s going to be more relevant in our time where everything has become a bit the same everywhere,” says Walsh. “People are more interested in connection to place, connection to practice and finding those connections in life and work. I think that’s going to be very important in our generation and generations to come because of the digital age.”
The collaborative concept of RINN was partially borne from Walsh’s Making In program, a non-profit cultural program started in 2017, as a way to bring the arts community together to inspire, discuss and learn, all in the name of making and creating. He hosts the annual seminar at his studio, featuring a series of talks and demonstrations exposing people to makers or perspectives they might not otherwise be aware of.
Walsh and Aoyama, who’s based in Japan, have collaborated on various art projects since 2012, and with the RINN exhibition, “time was a huge factor and we already had a lot of shared experience. It all evolved quite naturally,” Walsh says. “What’s interesting is that [RINN] is not just a dialogue between the objects or the materials of the craft, it’s also really a contemporary conversation between the people in the exhibition, which is quite unique given that the group is from far flung places in the world.”
RINN is not focused specifically on design, art or a particular niche within any of these disciplines. Walsh chose to keep it “quite abstract because I wanted to focus more on the act of making, on the intangible cultural knowledge that’s in the craftsman’s hands and mind, that lives within the actual doing. It speaks to the commitment of the artist to the idea. And I think that’s quite powerful.”
RINN/輪 Ireland and Japan: A Dialogue on Making, Place and Time is showing at The Glucksman through November 2025, featuring works by Sara Flynn, Sueharu Fukami, Shihoko Fukumoto, Joe Hogan, Eiko Kishi, Frances Lambe, Deirdre McLoughlin, O’Donnell + Tuomey, Satoru Ozaki, Sean Scully, Joseph Walsh, Kan Yasuda and Osamu Yokoyama.
CONTEXT: incontent
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