Traces of Molten State opens at Arts Museum

Traces of the Molten State by emerging Seattle-based artist Etsuko Ichikawa is on view at the Bellevue Arts Museum. The exhibit will continue through March 8, 2009.

The solo exhibition is comprised of two large-scale, site-specific installation pieces featuring Ichikawa’s signature glass pyrography in conjunction with glass and video components. The two installations are on display in the Museum Forum and the Pilchuck Glass School Gallery.

Ichikawa “draws” with molten glass – utilizing fire and smoke emitting from the liquid glass as charred traces of her fluid movements over paper.

Both site-specific installations offer an impression on the viewer that conforms to the two distinct exhibition spaces. The light and airy Bellevue Arts Museum Forum features three large-scale pyrography scrolls. Images of smoke and fire are projected onto the installation, bringing it to life. The second installation, specifically designed for the Pilchuck Glass School Gallery, creates an intimate “inner gallery” comprised of a curved wall of glass pyrographs that surrounds an installation of hand-sculpted solid glass forms. Flickering video images complete the shadowy display, which Ichikawa describes as dark and earthy.

Born in Tokyo, Ichikawa has resided in the U.S. for the last decade. She received her BFA in painting from the Tokyo Zokei University in 1987, and later attended the Tokyo Glass Art Institute from 1991 - 1992.

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