AMÉLIE DAUTEUR – "TSUNO"

2025
3/12
Painted ceramic on a wooden base
Height: 23 cm

Tsuno (角) is an ancient Japanese word, first attested in texts as early as 720 CE. It means "horn" — the horn of an animal, the antenna of a snail, any sharp protrusion that pierces the air and declares its presence.

The kanji 角 carries a double life: read as tsuno, it is the horn; read as kado, it becomes a corner, an angle, a point where two edges meet. Power and geometry, animal force and architectural precision — held within a single character.

In Japanese folklore, the horn is never merely ornamental. It belongs to the oni, the wild spirits of the threshold, neither fully of this world nor the next. To bear a horn is to stand apart — untamed, exposed, and sovereign.

With this totem, Amélie Dauteur sculpts the tension between vulnerability and strength. TSUNO rises as an affirmation — the refusal to retract, to smooth oneself into something easier to hold.