Muku Muku – homage to water, light and earth

Contemporary art is often exhibited in a special space for appreciation such as a museum and a gallery, and plays a big role in efficiently touching art. Meanwhile, from the middle of the 20th century, public arts that are art works installed in public daily living spaces have appeared. “Muku Muku” at Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station is a work that is surely positioned in that flow. I feel that the art plays a major role to enhance the role of public spaces, in order to improve the quality of daily activities. At the beginning of this production work, richly filled water, shining light and a land where the beautiful nature in the South Hokkaido, represented by Ōnuma Quasi-National Park, spreads out emerged in my mind. That became the driving force to turn me towards the creation of the Luce Arte. Also, it was one of the reasons that many stained glasses are there in this area historically. With the combination of beautiful German hand-blown glass cultivated by a long history and LED light source which is a cutting-edge achievement of science and technology, I think that the light shaping (Luce Arte) realized beautiful light and color and its sparkle in the station space. It was a new challenge to break the frame of the stained glass works in the past (release from rectangular or circle frames), and the work has been completed as a crystal of technique by the companions at CREARE Studio who worked ambitiously and the staff at the collaborative factory who worked on elaborate metal processing. Understanding and cooperation by many stakeholders is the key for realizing a public art. I would like to express my sincere gratitude as an artist and a citizen of Hokkaido. It would be greatly appreciated if people using Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station could feel the beauty energy of nature and people in Hokkaido through “Muku Muku” in the future.

This stained glass was produced to commemorate the opening of Hokkaido Shinkansen. The rich nature in Southern Hokkaido spreading around Onuma Quasi-National Park is symbolized by the state of earth full of pure water and light. As if the presence of the mountains, the shine of the lake surface, the coloring of the flowers and the noise of the trees come together and bring the future, hope and vigor to people’s mind, the work was made as a new light shaping by using LED with German hand-blown glass.