Liisa Hashimoto: Light Fiction

An interview by Susan Cummins for the Art Jewelry Forum

05 November 2012

Liisa Hashimoto: Light Fiction

Shibumi Gallery, Berkeley, California, USA

April Higashi’s Shibumi Gallery, in Berkeley, California, is having a wonderful show by Japanese artist Liisa Hashimoto. The installation of the show is very energetic and imaginative, like a playground.
I understand that you live in Osaka, Japan, but went to school to learn metalsmithing in America. Is that correct, and if so, can you tell me who you studied with and where?
Liisa Hashimoto: Yes, I live in Osaka now. I have my studio here, too. After graduating from high school, I went to America and learned metalsmithing under Ms. Yoshiko Yamamoto at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts.
Would you tell the backstory of how you got a show at Shibumi Gallery in Berkeley, California?
Liisa Hashimoto: Donna Briskin, an early board chair and longtime member of AJF, is an art collector who lives in Berkeley, California. She found my name through Klimt02 and visited my studio while in Japan two years ago. Last year, she came back to my studio with a travel group from the Art Guild of the Oakland Museum of California. She showed my works to April Higashi, owner of Shibumi Gallery, and she gave me a chance to exhibit.
What is the contemporary jewelry scene like in Japan? Please talk about the main schools and galleries in Japan as well as how the Japanese people respond to the work. 
Liisa Hashimoto: Contemporary jewelry is not too popular here in Japan as it is in America or in Europe. There are not too many galleries or shops that carry contemporary jewelry in Japan. I think that we Japanese are short and small compared to Western people, so we prefer smaller jewelry that is not too big or striking. Many people prefer jewelry that has brand names or real stones. Many of them enjoy looking at the contemporary jewelry, but only a few are eager to buy and wear it.
Probably the most well known school for jewelry making in Japan is Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry. The school has locations in both Tokyo and Osaka. The Tokyo school was established more than twenty years ago. The Osaka school was opened in 2008 and is still quite new. Hiko Mizuno is connected to many contemporary jewelers worldwide and has visiting artists who give lectures in the schools. Many contemporary jewelers in Japan are graduates from Hiko Mizuno.

Unfortunately, there are few well-known galleries in Japan—gallery deux poissons in Tokyo, Gallery C.A.J. in Kyoto, and Toi in Osaka. I am sorry to say that there are no other good galleries for contemporary jewelry in Osaka.
 You have called the show Light Fiction. Why?
Actually, April Higashi chose the name, and this is what she says about it:

‘The show pairs the work of jewelry artist Liisa Hashimoto and the design studio of Anzfer Farms (Jonathan Anzalone and Joseph Ferriso). I chose the name Light Fiction because I felt the work created by all the artists in this show share the similar sensibilities of lightness, elegance, and playfulness found in nature. Observing manmade objects that have been left outdoors and the playful way nature integrates and embraces them over time inspires Liisa’s jewelry. Anzfer Farms uses reclaimed and found pieces of wood to create elegant yet unassuming sculptural lights and objects. I felt autumn, with its changes of colors and light, was the perfect season to show these artists. Their works embody the transformations of nature, the changing luminosity, and the temporal elegance of materials.”

The installation includes wire props to hold each piece. It gives an animated feeling, like a Calder circus or a large playground. What were you thinking about when you planned this?
Liisa Hashimoto: My installation was inspired by Calder’s Circus and his mobiles. Alexander Calder is one of my favorite artists! And for the show Light Fiction, my personal theme was ‘to the open air.’ As you wrote, I wanted to express the playground outside, coming out from the house. So, I made some of my pieces movable with brass wires to show them like a jungle gym. And most of all, I wanted to show the shadows through the installation. The shadows were important to think about, especially since having the chance to exhibit with Anzfer Farms, a lighting designer.
If you were to invite some well-known jewelers to visit your studio, who would they be?
Liisa Hashimoto: There are so many jewelers that I admire, but if I could only invite one I would like to ask Mari Ishikawa, a well known Japanese jeweler living in Munich, Germany. Her works are all beautifully inspired by nature with the background of Japanese culture—the colors, shapes, etc. I get inspiration from nature and natural things myself, so Mari’s works stimulate me a lot. Fortunately, I had the chance to attend her slide lecture in Osaka this year. Her personality is also very nice, and I can see her strength and sensitivity toward her work, too. But, I did not have a chance to invite her to my studio. So next time if I have a chance, I would like Mari Ishikawa to visit my studio.
Thank you.

Link to Art Jewelry Forum Article and more info this organization. 

Singular, Organic, Illuminated: Conversations With Anzfer Farms

interview by Elka Karl 

photo: Jonpaul Douglass

While Anzfer Farms, the experimental design workshop founded by Jonathan Anzalone and Joseph Ferriso, now calls the Outer Richmond district of San Francisco home, its original location was a bit more rural. Bucolic, one might even say. Back in 2009, the workshop was located in a tumbling-down cattle barn on a ranch near Port Costa, CA.

“We were basically squatting in a barn where the roof had somewhat collapsed, and the farmer had to keep it boarded up to keep the cows out. I lifted up the roof but kept the boards as they were,” explains John.

“We had a straw floor,” Joe says.

Adding the word Farms to Anzfer — a mashup of the duo’s last names — seemed fitting, given the workshop’s original location and its mission. “We didn’t know what we’d be making. It wasn’t lighting so much then as it was experimental furniture. We liked the idea of being able to go in any direction,” Jon notes.

“And ‘Farms‘ has that quality to it,” interjects Joe.

“The idea of ‘something’s going to grow here.’” finishes Jon.

That the duo finishes each other’s sentences, helping to shape and grow the trajectory of a conversation, should come as no surprise, given Jon and Joe’s design process. In no small part are Anzfer Farms’s lighting designs a direct reflection of Jon and Joe’s personal relationship. Each light is a bespoke testament to Anzfer Farms’s dedication to slow design, to listening to what each piece has to say, and how it needs to be sculpted and transformed.

“People are excited about the lamps, but it doesn’t seem like something we could scale huge. Each work is an intimate work, there’s no real production,” Joe explains. “Even for the show [at Shibumi], we were busy making each lamp over a process of weeks, months, of gathering material. We’re excited the attention is there, but it’s not something we could duplicate. Every one is unique. We’re still making one-of-a-kind sculptural pieces.”

“We can’t hire someone to make them,” says Jon. “Drilling is such a big part of it. Proportions, balance, it’s quite sensitive. I could say, ‘Joe, I found this branch, wire it,’ and I know I’d be satisfied. But there’s no one else I could have do that.”

“We’re trusting each other,” Joe says. “Rarely are we making a lamp on our own.”

The two have a long personal history, having grown up together in the same small town in Long Island. They’ve been collaborating on and off over the years since middle school, and are both painters by training. Anzfer Farms was founded on less-than-a-shoestring budget after the two separately moved to San Francisco. In fact, the lack of budget was the genesis for the organic, sculptural lamps the two have become known for.

“When Joe and I started working together we had no budget to buy materials. In this area there’s an abundance of high quality materials, redwood for example. A lot of this old growth material is very stable, it behaves really well, it’s acclimated to this environment, so it’s a pleasure to work with,” explains Jon. “It doesn’t warp, twist, crack . . . all of the things that could be problems with new materials. It also has an inherent previous life that comes through and I think all of that just adds to the starting point.”

Reclaimed timber led naturally to the use of driftwood, which the two would find washed up on the beaches near their home. Limiting the idea of reclaimed materials to something that had been already milled was counterintuitive to Anzfer Farms’s mission of discovery and experimentation. They were attracted to the driftwood’s naturally weathered look, its patina, texture, and patterning.

“We’d bring it into the studio and look at it for its sculptural qualities and the gestures and really try to listen closely to what the driftwood was saying,” notes Joe.

Make no mistake, however, this is no throwback to a hippie decorating moment. Instead, it is a very modern interpretation of the use of driftwood and reclaimed timber. Of special note is the way Anzfer Farms simultaneously complement and contrast the organic nature of the driftwood by pairing it with materials such as oversized bulbs and geometrically cut walnut bases — materials with a very high degree of regularity.

Some of the taller floor pieces, which reach upwards of eight feet tall, may strike the casual observer as nearly impossible to wire, but Joe and Jon assert that this part of the design process is the most fun for them, reminiscent of a good game of pool. Using a long drill bit, the pair work together to aim, triangulate, drill, and weave wiring through the length of branch.

“We’re not hiding anything,” says Jon. “It’s a formula that works that’s very organic. It doesn’t disrespect the branch at all; it’s more in collaboration with it. That’s a big part of our process, listening to the branch and collaborating with it, listening to each other and stepping back and saying, ‘What does this branch want, and what do we want to see in it?’”

Indeed, so much of Anzfer Farms’s work is about a conversation. Whether these conversations occur between designer and designer, designer and branch, or light and painting, it is one they listen to and learn from. The two have noted that their work as painters, furniture makers, and lighting designers inform and influence each part of their lives and each work they collaborate upon. It’s an overlapping conversation that has led to undeniably singular and beautiful works, and a conversation we hope will be added to for decades to come.

Anzfer Farms’s show, Light Fiction, which also features the jewelry of Llisa Hashimoto, runs through November 30th at Shibumi Gallery.