Masatoshi Izumi Installation "Cactus Life – Living with the Earth, 2007 – 2008" at Mandarin Oriental

This page last updated on 03/24/2018

The Artist: Masatoshi Izumi is Japanese and was born in 1938.  Izumi’s work celebrates harmony with nature by taking existing forms and altering them slightly to reveal an even more beautiful state. Born into a family of stone carvers in the town of Mure on the Japanese island of Shikoku, Izumi began working with stone in 1953. In 1964, he co-founded the Stone Atelier in Kagawa Prefecture, dedicated to new architectural and artistic uses of traditional stone cutting techniques. Izumi and his colleagues have realized some of the most ambitious architectural stone projects in Japan.

The Installation: In accordance with Mandarin Oriental’s traditions and values of Asian hospitality, Masatoshi Izumi’s sculpture “CACTUS Life – living with Earth,” 2007-2008, is presented in the hotel’s entrance, welcoming guests in a Zen-like manner. Following CityCenter’s ideals of sustainability, the sculpture is made of Masatoshi Izumi’s minutely carved graceful sculpture from large pieces of intricately poised basalt – a form of lava that has cooled on the surface of a volcano. It towers more than 17-feet by 6-feet and weighs approximately eight tons.
                                       

"CACTUS Life – living with the Earth,” 

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