Mika Aoki’s Blown-Glass Sculptures

Craft & Design
Mika Aoki’s Blown-Glass Sculptures

Transparent Exploration

By Arwen O’Reilly Griffith

Photos by Yoshisato Komaki

Mika Aokiโ€™s glass-blown sculptures seemย otherworldly, until you look more closely.ย Then you realize how very tied to this worldย they are: inspired by mold spores, viruses,ย plants, life, and death, the clear glassย simultaneously makes abstract conceptsย concrete and vanishes before our very eyes.ย Born in Hokkaido, Japan, Aoki now lives inย London, where she is learningย English and studying at theย Royal College of Art. (Donโ€™tย mistake her for a novice; sheโ€™sย shown her work for years in Japan afterย studying art and glass blowing in Tokyo.)

Is she an artist or a scientist? Her resumรฉย proves her chops as an artist, but she says,ย โ€œMy inspirations come from observationsย and conversations with scientists.โ€ Whileย creating new pieces, Aoki often visits labsย to spark ideas, and dreams of collaboratingย with scientists on her next body of work. Herย interest in things that canโ€™t always be seenย with the naked eye lends itself perfectly toย glass. โ€œUnless light shines on it, we cannotย confirm [its] existence,โ€ she writes. โ€œThus Iย encountered one material which can exist asย the membrane of something invisible.โ€

In an installation piece called Her Songsย Are Floating, an old car sits in darkness.ย Glass arches out of the car and within it,ย looking like transparent rootsย shooting into the interior. โ€œIย try to make works that couldย make contact with physicalย and mental senses,โ€ Aoki says, and oneย canโ€™t help but think of the battle betweenย humans and the natural world, life andย its end. Other works show sinuous glassย sculptures suspended in vitrines, explodingย from test tubes, and growing out of bottles.ย Sperm searches for ovum, virus for host,ย spore for sustenance. Surely the glass isย alive? Or at least singing? โ€œIโ€™m interested inย the phenomenon of life,โ€ she says simply.


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