Hodaka Higashi “Bloom Fragrance”

Hodaka Higashi is a glass sculptor based in Akita City. A&S Aoyama will hold an exhibition event for his new works at A&S Aoyama starting Friday, December 9th.

Event details

“Bloom Fragrance,” is the name of his new series of works which include perfume bottles and flower vases made of hand-blown glass. This is the artist’s first exhibition at Arts & Science. We welcome you to please come and see this special presentation of glass works in person.

MESSAGE

“It was June of this year, in Kyoto, on a day I felt like I was going to boil in the heat wave of the early summer, when I had a meeting with Sonya about an exhibition for Arts & Science. At that time the theme was very broad, and persisted of an idea to make organic shapes of glass work in the theme of fragrance and flowers. When I plan solo exhibitions, I often decide on a concept at the beginning and compose new works based on the idea. This time, my usual clear glass style has evolved to include colorful organic forms that create a beautiful contrast with the transparent glass. It was my first time to create a work that dealt with colors this strong, and above all, to develop this graceful shape I had to manually shape hot molten glass which was not an easy process. The more you put your hands in the glass to shape it, the more it loses its flexibility, but contractively you cannot shape it without putting your hands into it.

I believe there is always a challenge in creating something new and different, however the value always lies in the complicated process in order to make it happen.”

— Hodaka Higashi

PROFILE

Hodaka Higashi is a glass sculptor. Born in Miyagi Prefecture in 1989, he encountered glass production for the first time at the age of eighteen as a student at Akita Municipal Junior College of Arts and Crafts. He was immediately fascinated by the transformative characteristics of the material and committed himself to further studies of glass work, graduating from Toyama Institute of Glass Art in 2012. He currently resides in Akita City, where he carries out all of his production independently at Araya Glass Studio. His work places the highest value on marks of individuality and the variations that are part of handwork and craft production. His facet cut glass works include perfume bottles, sake cups, and other objects.