Arrangement

Arrangement borrows the visual language of Japanese Ikebana — its reverence for balance, negative space, and the quiet drama of a single bloom — and then undermines it with a vessel that refuses to do its job. The oblong, irregular form stands upright with all the poise of a proper water container, yet it is structurally unsuited to actually hold water. It performs “vase” as a role rather than as a function. Three yellowing white blossoms complete this parody of convention: one dutifully rises from within the vessel, as tradition suggests; another defiantly emerges from behind it, as if the arrangement has grown a backstage; yet a third hangs inside the “vase”. They echo Ikebana’s concern with line and asymmetry, but also hint that life inevitably spill beyond the sanctioned frame. The transparent and translucent “rocks” scattered around the piece mimic the decorative stones often added to arrangements, but here they are irreducibly glass: solid, fragile, and useless as anything but ornament. Rendered in soft blues and pale, translucent tones, the sculpture adopts the meditative calm of a traditional floral display, while quietly questioning ideas of function, authenticity, and control.

Medium: glass (pâte de verre technique)

Size: 12” wide, 11” high, 5” deep