Science advisor
Art and science
Artist’s bio
As we face climate change, what letters might heaven be sending us?
Takahiro Iwasaki plays with scale, his playful and humorous sculptures often make giant pylons and enormous cranes into miniature objects, creating fantastical landscapes including oil fields and detailed small scale models. Other examples of his work include creating a hanging sculpture of Japan’s famous Itsukushima Shrine, where his symmetrical work is both the shrine and its reflection. For Climate Clock he has also played with scale; working with local carpenters Kari Korpela and Pirjo Korpela to craft an oversized tar barrel. Referencing the annual tar festival next to the site of his sculpture beside the River Kiiminkijoki.
Whilst visiting Ylikiiminki he was struck both by the local church and the enormous quantity of snow which distorts the view across the landscape, burying benches, trees and completely covering the river. Iwasaki has often referenced architecture in his work and Ylikiiminki church was designed by Jacob Rijf, one of Finland’s most renowned historical neoclassical architects.
Aerial view of Ylikiiminki. Photo: Harri Tarvainen.
Iwasaki experienced ‘Hanki kanto’, an extra crust of hard ice which you can walk on above the ground and so set the barrel peepholes at different heights to show how the snow level is changing.
Inside the barrel he has created his own tiny snowflakes reminiscent of the symmetry of Rijf’s architectural church drawings. Iwasaki wanted visitors to view these as though magnified under a microscope. This reminded him of Yukihiro Nakatani’s words: ‘Snow crystals are letters sent from heaven.’
Materials used in the artwork are tar on pine barrel, acrylic, stainless steel, LED lights.
Science advisor
Professor Pertti Ala-aho, Snow Hydrologist Oulu University.
Ala-aho is a snow hydrologist looking at ice and snow, in particular its water content in order to understand more about the effects of climate change and adapting to changing snow conditions in the North of Finland. Ala-aho explores how snowmelt contributes to human “blue water” and “green water” used by the ecosystems.
Art and science
Oulu in general has snowfall from November to April and both the rivers and Baltic sea freeze during the Winter but the snow and ice is changing with climate change. Pertti Ala-aho discussed the nature of snow with Takahiro including the experimental methods that he uses to understand how much water is in the snow. For example taking snow cores and digging pits to understand the hardness of the snow layers that have more water content; determining flooding and the effects on the local biodiversity and agriculture.
Takahiro Iwasaki. Photo: Kevin Kallombo.
Born in Hiroshima, 1975. Lives and works in Hiroshima.
Takahiro Iwasaki was selected to represent Japan at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017 with his exhibition “Turned Upside Down, It’s a Forest,” And he has held solo exhibitions, such as “REFLECTION MODEL (ITSUKUSHIMA)” (NGV International, Melbourne, Australia, 2023), “Takahiro Iwasaki:Nature of Perception” (Portland Japanese Garden, Portland, USA, 2023), “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” (Kanaz Forest of Creation Art Museum, Fukui, Japan, 2024). He participated in the exhibition “Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia, and the Pacific,” at the V&A Museum in London in 2026.
