As children, we have all gone bananas over the light, played shadow shapes on the walls, made the dog dance around trying to catch the elusive spot of light, and more than anything, stood in awe as the sky gave its own show of rainbows. There is a magnetism in watching the dance of natural light and colour and their congruence.

 

Inspired by the same fascination, Japanese luminary designer Tokujin Yoshioka explores and plays with the natural light in his experiments with luminescence using glass and crystal.

 

 

His solo installation, aptly named ‘Spectrum’, being held at Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo until 26th March 2017, is one such experiment. The sculpture is up made of 200 prisms on the wall refracting thousands of rainbow rays, and projecting light spectrum to the entire space. Inspired by the relationship between man and natural light, this installation conveys the aura of nature, the passage of time and the beauty of light itself, and aims to arouse human senses conveying the mystery of rainbow rays refracted through prisms.

 

“This experience offers an almost mystical journey through light, with seemingly infinite rainbow colours created from the sculpture made of prisms”, says Tokujin, “Sunlight, moonlight and shimmers of water – all living creatures can sense the power of the natural world. The beauty of it transcends time and has mystic energy that cannot be fully grasped.”

 

 

 

 

“I’ve studied and experimented with sunlight many times because it is such a unique phenomenon. Through this process, I’ve learned the unpredictable character of natural light, and I tried to create this sublime beauty with my own approach. I see transparency as a colour which is closest to light, and I use this as a material. The colour of transparency is radiant in the sunlight.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

His other works include “VENUS” – a Natural crystal chair, Swarovski Crystal Palace “Stellar”, “Honey Pop”, “Pane Chair” and “Tornado”. His projects transcend the boundaries of product design, architecture, and exhibition installation, more artwork than architecture,

 

In 2013, Yoshioka installed the “Rainbow Church”, a giant architectural installation of some five hundred crystal prisms positioned to refract light in spectacular curves of colour across the space it inhabited. The exhibition, Crystalize, was held in Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.

 

 

Some find his art to have a kind of Japanese influence, though there are no direct references. To which he says, “The Japanese concept of nature finds life and mysteries in the natural world stemming from a sensation of energy or an aura projected by nature,  This kind of perception and unique understanding of nature in Japan has echoed down to us from ancient times.”

 

 

In 2011, the design for the architectural project “KOU-AN Glass Tea House” was presented at Glasstress 2011, the collateral event of the 54th La biennale di Venezia, and in 2015, his interpretation of the traditional Tea House was installed on the stage of Shougunzuka Mound, Seiryu-den, a precinct of Tendai Sect Shoren-in Temple, which is, both a sacred Buddhist site and a designated Important Cultural Property of Japan. He aimed to capture the essence of time and nature in Japanese culture by integrating the glass Tea House with nature and light in a way that is palpable.

 

 

“Water Block”, a representative work of optical glass projects started since 2002, is permanently exhibited in Musée d’Orsay, Paris. “KATANA” is an evolution of “Water Block”. This glass is made with a traditional Japanese technique and a platinum mold, which indicates ripples on the surface of water. The solid glass with a triangular section expresses the beauty in nature. It becomes a transparent dynamic form as if sculpted from a mass of water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To learn more about Tokujin Yoshioka, click here.