the sky in our hands, our hands in the sky

Overview

The hidden soundscapes of Toshiko Takaezu’s closed ceramic forms have long captivated Leilehua Lanzilotti. Over the course of several years, Lanzilotti collected recordings of Takaezu’s closed forms, gently tapping their surfaces and revolving them so the small ceramic rattles within them resound. Like Takaezu, Lanzilotti finds echoes of the brilliant landscapes of Hawai’i in the combination of vibrant glazes and quiet interior aural environments. Lanzilotti has combined the recorded sounds of Takaezu’s closed forms with footage shot on the island of Hawai’i—at the base of Kilauea, the slopes of Mauna Loa, and the top of Mauna Kea. In the overlay of sound, texture, color, and light, we get the feeling of being inside Takaezu’s multisensory landscapes. [Overview courtesy of Leilehua Lanzilotti]