We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kazuki Takizawa a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kazuki , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

My most meaningful project still to this day is the “Breaking the Silence” performance/installation I created in 2015 during at a glassblowing facility called STARworks Glass, in Star, North Carolina. This piece was directly influenced by my experience of being with a family member who was going through a tough time and struggling with overwhelmingly strong suicidal ideation. After going through this experience and making this installation, I had significantly become more committed as an artist and decided to take the direction to openly speak out about some of these topics related to mental health I felt it was still not willingly and freely discussed in everyday conversations.

The installation consisted of many clear off-centered blown glass vessels that stood under a rain system I’ve created. The vessels eventually filled and tipped over, broke, and some violently fell off the table or took other vessels with them when falling over. The performance was done once with viewers at the facility and another time documented in video recording.

(https://www.kazukitakizawa.com/breaking-the-silence-)

I’ve had months of trial and error in creating the forms, and finally resolving to this shape and format of the installation. Back then, I was just starting out as an artist so I felt like I was putting everything in me to create this installation. Creating something to be destroyed for a purpose. There was definitely a big relief after everything was done, and it was such a special moment in my early career.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

It has been such a wild ride choosing the path of an artist, being diagnosed with bipolar disorder along the way and publicly speaking about this experience. My family never talked about mental health nor even mentioned about depression from the extent that I can remember. I come from a family of businessman, grew up abroad my entire life, and somehow I found myself being captivated by this molten material that I had never seen before I went to university in Hawaii. Out of all the places to learn glassmaking, learning glassmaking in Hawaii gave me a strong foundation and knowledge of the different types of glassmaking such as, glassblowing, kiln-forming, coldworking, sandcasting, lost-wax kiln casting, and Pate de Verre. I’ve also spent a lot of time in the metal casting and fabrication shop. I think I was just drawn to fire and how fire brings people together even in the art making environment. School gave me a strong foundation on my mental health as well. I loved going to school counseling for my weekly therapy sessions. It gave me the coping techniques I needed at the time. After school, I traveled a bunch and focused my learning in glassblowing, and eventually opened up my glassblowing studio in Los Angeles called KT Glassworks where I mainly produce my glass sculptures and installations.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

If anything, living with bipolar disorder has taught me something about resilience. I’ve somehow learned to mellow out and not let myself down when going through the shift from having bursts of creative energy to feeling like everything I’ve ever done is complete nonsense. I feel that there are cycles within my emotional state, and surprisingly I find this similar in different aspects of life. The cycle of my own emotion or other people’s emotion, the cycle of money when running a business, the cycle of energy in the soil while I’m gardening or aquascaping. Knowing that we are all going through a cycle of some sort gives me the comfort that I will return back to where I want to be even if I am having a bad day emotionally, or if something is going wrong in my studio. Knowing that things will go back to where I want them to eventually gives me the momentum that I need to get through the tough moments and still be active.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I’d love to work on the next glass installation soon. The last installation I did was part of my exhibit at the Craft Contemporary Museum in Los Angeles in 2021 which included glass flower garden and a nest made out of hundreds of paper cranes that were folded by the communities we virtually reached out to while the country was in lock down. I love the stories that I came across during the making of each of my past installations. It gives me the chance to really get to know communities and people.     

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kazukitakizawa.com
• Instagram: @ktglassworks
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/kt-glassworks-los-angeles
• Other: Studio: www.ktglassworks.com

Image Credits
Photographers: Robert Wedemeyer, Jordan Trimas, Cliff Bumgardner, Jason Dowdle