KAI Films

In winter, we are fascinated by the heavy icicles that are about to fall from the edge of the roof, because they show the beautiful forms made by nature as well as their structural dynamics. The moisture in the air turns into snow and falls onto the roof; then it is melted by sun and the dripping water creates the beautiful upside-down conical shaped icicles. These phenomena remind me Kojiro’s glass sculpture which he describes as Kiln-foamed Casting.

The mixture of glass powder and the expansion agent is put into a mold and heated in a kiln. When the piece expands from the heat, it cools rapidly, then, is heated again. The form is changed by the internal and external environments accordingly, but it ends up as a form where the material and the structure’s properties are in a natural state. Kojiro wants to express the beauty and dynamism of those phenomena in his art works, like the journey of the icicles that started from the moisture in the air.

This work based on his concept has been acclaimed internationally, and, out of 3900 applicants, he was awarded the special mention by Loewe Craft Prize in Madrid in 2017. He currently lives in Hida-Takayama in Gifu prefecture with his wife, Runa Kosogawa, who is also a glass artist.

http://www.keikoartinternational.com/artists/kojiro_yoshiaki.html