Sei Wo Harumu (Filling with Silence)

A graduate of Craft and Glassmaking at Osaka University, Yokoyama’s work is the result of intricate processes realised in the same place that his glass is made. Living and working in the Japanese coastal city of Toyama, he constantly finds new ways to capture the delicate power of his materials.
This inflated bubble of glassware is formed from its creator’s own ‘breath of life’. Hewn from glass melted at 1200°C and then reeled and blown, the work swells to over a metre in diameter for a fleeting second, before distorting and cracking as it cools. Blowing into the glass releases a primitive feeling as the orb is shaped according to the controlled power of its maker.The embryonic form is a symbol of nascent life, a silent idea that swells even further in the imagination of each beholder.