SANDBOX

Contemporary Japanese Glass

Since 2004 I have been following the activities of the Japanese art collective ‘SANDBOX’. The collective consists of 8 young artists, each of them fascinated by glass. Together they explore the limits of glass as a sculptural material. Although SANDBOX limits itself to the Katamari glass, the result is personal and varied, from pure design to conceptual art.

Each time again the group’s dynamism and passionate enthusiasm push their projects to a high quality level. In recent years the members went their own ways however, which made the coordination of the SANDOX activities considerably more complicated.

SANDBOX celebrated its 10th anniversary in the GlazenHuis. And some celebration it was! Next to an imagining exhibition of refined exoticism, we brought a lecture, a workshop, a residency and demonstrations. For this purpose the amalgamation of atelier activities and the exhibition was of great importance.

This fifth exhibition of the GLAZENHUIS was undoubtedly another direct hit.

PASS ON
From 18th until 30th August Takeshi Ito, as a resident artist, has created the installation ‘Pass On’. Ito sought and found 30 curious participants who were prepared to plant their artistic ‘seed’: an object, a story, now funny, then poignant, a memory they wish to pass on to a next generation. Together with each volunteer, young or old, Takeshi made a glass tricycle, each carrying a personal treasure.

According to Ito, tricycles symbolise the love of adults for children. It is a present with an important message. It is the first vehicle our children use to move from place to place, a vehicle that allows them to choose their own way and that is powered by their own strength. Glass symbolizes emotion, space and time, but above all, the fragility of our children. Yet they are not afraid. They believe in themselves and courageously take their first steps.

‘Pass on’ shows a symbolic story in a continuous process: life. The life of passing on, but also passing on life itself, passing it on to the next, to the successor, the child, as a treasure, a seed for the next generation.