THROUGH A GLASS, BRIGHTLY: MY TAKE ON TOSHIO LEZUMI'S OPTICAL ALCHEMY
- Kaja Knowers
- Jul 30
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 2
I love how Toshio Iezumi takes glass, seemingly static cold material, and bends it into illusions that shift with your every movement. When I first saw M.160303 from his Move series, I thought it was alive. Layers of laminated glass hemmed into convex and concave curves play with light so that shadows and reflections dance depending on where you stand.
Another piece that gets my creative neurons firing is M.180702, a vertical sculpture about 60 cm tall. It is made of half mirror glass that picks up colour, silhouette, light, then warps it elegantly. From one angle it is fluid and delicate, from another it is abstract geometry.
How Iezumi Transforms Glass into a Living Experience
I feel like Iezumi’s process is a manifesto in material respect. He laminates sheets of slightly green tinted glass between 2 mm and 2 cm thick, bonding them with UV glue to build blocks with rich depth. Then he carves the block with diamond blades using techniques borrowed from stone carving to sculpt waves, curves and internal voids. That is followed by meticulous grinding across six abrasive grades finishing with felt buffing and cerium oxide polishing to bring out transparency and optical magic.
The result is material integrity turned poetic, glass that shifts between opacity and reflection, volume and void.
What I Have Stolen (Respectfully) from Iezumi’s Practice
Trust the material’s character. Let glass show its unique refractive whisper rather than forcing it to shout.
Embrace transformation through process, curation of layers, precision shaping, polished finish.
Design for interaction, light shifts, viewer movement, shadows morphing.
In Conclusion: Look Again, See Differently
I feel grateful for artists like Toshio Iezumi. He reminds me that glass does not need to sparkle to be alive, it just needs to transform. In his world, each fragment of light is a story waiting to shift. Seeing the world his way means catching tiny moments of magic in reflection and refraction.
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