Hodaka Higashi “Bloom Fragrance”

“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