Artist of the Month
November 2019
Masayo Odahashi
Japanese sculptor Masayo Odahashi finds her themes and subjects in everyday life. Her contemplative figures convey the feeling of great closeness and constitute an invitation to reflect. Odahashi has been awarded numerous prizes and awards, including a prize at the International Exhibition of Glass in Kanazawa, Japan. She is represented by Galerie B in Sinzheim, Germany.
Click on each photo to the right for a full picture.
Trail of Cloud Ahead II, 2017; 47 x 33 x 23 centimeters; pâte de verre glass with enamel painting
In my hands II, 2018; 43 x 22 x 23 centimeters; pâte de verre glass with enamel painting
Butterfly Journey I, 2019; 22 x 13 x 22 centimeters; pâte de verre glass with enamel painting
At Sunset II, 2018; 42 x 16 x 21 centimeters; pâte de verre glass with enamel painting
Memories III, 2019; 30 x 18 x 21 centimeters; pâte de verre glass with enamel painting
By Night II, 2019; 41 x 15.5 x 18 centimeters; pâte de verre glass with enamel painting
Masayo Odahashi
Artist Statement:
I often find many matters of interest in daily life. It is often not obvious, yet sometimes I see a connection between my personal experience and those of others. The connection between personal and shared experience is a point where I begin to express my view of the world. From my collection I select things and then begin to edit or modify to finally create a form. Creating a form is a means of self- understanding for me. I also see my creations as a way to share my view of the world and communicate without and beyond words.
Makiyama Glass Studio that I often use to create my works is in Satoyama. (Satoyama means an undeveloped woodland near a village.) There are a few houses, large rice fields, and forest around the glass studio, and I often walk around the village. Along the way while walking, I can see many kinds of wild flowers and living things, for example a snake, a badger, a butterfly, a bird, a firefly, and more. I am also very interested in the sky. At sunset, I can see the many colors in the sky: purple, pink, sepia, dark blue. And sometimes I can see the many contrails in the sky because there is a airport in the next city. These expression in the sky give me much information from which I find inspiration to create.
Before I began to work with glass, I had a very limited view of what glass was. I thought that it was beautiful, transparent, and sharp, almost dangerous. Once I began my studies and began to see and learn about glass from Europe and America, I began to know and understand it much more deeply. Glass has many faces! I was particularly interested in the "presence" that a piece of solid glass could have, and the range of qualities that are possible with texture and different surfaces. About 10 years ago I first began to take my images from the two dimensional plane into three dimensions. Rather than only dealing with the surface of the vessel, I wanted to make a more integrated object. I chose the human body as my new "vessel." With a figure, I can communicate easily; I can use many invisible things - like memory, dreams, and emotion, and in fact people can understand, read, and interpret this easily in a figurative object.
The technique that I use is lost wax casting. I make a mold that I then fill with glass frits (powders), I then fire this to a high casting temperature. Once the object has been fired, I remove the glass from the mold and then paint it with coloured enamels that are then refired to make them a permanent integrated surface of the figure.
About Masayo Odahashi
Masayo Odahashi was born in Mie, Japan, in 1975. She earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from Aichi University of Education in Japan, Her master's degree was in fine arts, with an art education specialty. In 2010, she had a solo exhibition, Inner Sight, at the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft in Denmark. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung in Germany, and Glasmuseet Ebeltoft.
Odahashi has a unique approach to glass. Dagmar Brendstrup, director of Glasmuseet Ebeltoft on Odahashi: “These contemplative figures make a strong impression on everyone who looks at them. They convey the feeling of great closeness and constitute an invitation to reflect.” Masayo Odahashi has been awarded numerous prizes and awards, including a prize at the International Exhibition of Glass in Kanazawa, Japan.
Her pate de verre sculptures are reflective, almost meditative girls, and duality works: the girl and the rabbit, face to face in a boat, the man and the rabbit. Often there are two beings facing one another, but for Masayo Odahashi, the sculpture always represents one person and its reflection, the two sides of life, the two sides of a character.
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Acknowledgment of Gallery:
We are grateful to Galerie B, Sinzheim, Germany, for providing the Artist of the Month.
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