For the last 23 years, Japanese artist Makoto Azuma has been making art out of his favorite medium: flowers.
Azuma says he first became captivated by the power of flowers after he started working part-time at a florist’s in order to make some extra money playing in a rock and roll band. After spending some time at the shop, however, he discovered his true passion in blossoms.
Since devoting himself to his floral obsession, he has facilitated dozens of flower-related art projects.
This particular Great Big Story interview from 2017 follows Azuma as he prepares to launch bouquets of flowers into outer space.
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By partnering with a team of filmmakers and balloon technicians, Azuma successfully filmed a number of floral arrangements floating more than 18.6 miles (30,000 meters) above ground—and the results are spectacular.
“This project is about launching flowers to space,” Azuma told Great Big Story. “To arrange flowers where they would not exist … By arranging flowers in a space where they cannot exist, I am weaving in a new aspect of beauty, extracting it and guiding it. This is my purpose.”
To check out more of Azuma’s work, be sure and visit his website or Instagram page.
(WATCH the Great Big Story video below)
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This reminded me of the only project by Christo und Jeanne-Claude that extended across both hemispheres of the earth and one of their most spectacular interventions: For “The Umbrellas,” a forest of giant umbrellas opened in both Ibaraki, Japan, and southern California on October 9, 1991. I videotaped some of the ones in California. It was taken down on one of the umbrellas toppled killing a woman.