Every Wednesday, GLASS Quarterly will excerpt an article from its archives. Founded in 1979 by Richard Yelle, the magazine remains the magazine of record for the contemporary glass art world. This week, we excerpt Yoriko Mizuta’s profile on Hiroshi Yamano and his application of metal work to glass art in. “From East to West With Hiroshi Yamano” originally appeared in GLASS #44, the Summer 1991 issue, and was translated from the Japanese by Kimiko Steiner.
“[Yamano’s] encounter with the ancient Japanese technique of metal craft coalesced with his freshly aroused feel for the aesthetic sense of Japanese classic art resulting after long experimental efforts in his unique creations. According to Yamano, the fish in the series From East to West is a self-portrait. But in this work, the fish are obviously not swimming in water. For Yamano, who loves to be near rivers, oceans, and lakes, water symbolizes his own mother country, Japan, while the mountain symbolizes America. These swimming fish, with their mouths wide open, seem to be looking for their identities. The works made during his stay in America clearly and vividly show young Yamano’s solitude and thirst for understanding. Some of the early pieces in the same series also reflect his concern for the primitive art of Africa.
....After coming back to Japan, the fish, his other self, seems to have found its place and to have begun to swim comfortably, as if feeling that at last it was coming close to water. As a matter of fact, his recent work shows a new pattern that looks like water. Yamano obtains this effect by adding one more step before picking up the silver leaf; first, he fuses a little leaf on the blown black glass, then fishes blowing until the desired shape is achieved and fine silver cracks have begun to spread all over the surface. Using this as a base, he adds hot glass to some parts of the work and then fuses on more silver leaf. His treatment of silver leaf has become much more refined, causing it to change colors while reflecting the copper and verdigris, emitting a gold and copper-brown light. Yamano’s pleasure in this superb demonstration of craftsmanship is obvious.
The series From East to West exhibits a wide diversity of expressions in form, in the use of tones of silver leaf and other metals, and in motifs. Yamano uses blowing instead of casting as his basic technique so that he can apply various metals to the surface of the glass. Though the results of the hot glass technique can be unpredictable, Yamano is enthusiastic about the way it can be used to reflect his artistic goals in his various works. Regardless of the current wealth in Japan, the position of glass art and glass artists is still far from ideal. Under such circumstances, Hiroshi Yamano and other artists of his generation can only work determinedly toward changing this situation and creating a new artistic movement in Japan.”