“Nature is both my inspiration and my source material. My aim is to interrupt the natural growing process. If grasses or twigs were just left outside, within months they would be gone. With my works, I step in to halt the decay.”
Komorebi | Dappled Light, a solo exhibition by Japanese-born, UK-based artist Kazuhito Takadoi, whose intricate sculptural works transform organic materials into meditations on nature, balance, light and the ephemeral.
The Japanese word komorebi describes the dappled effect of sunlight filtering through leaves — a moment of natural poetry that captures the quiet intensity of Kazuhito’s practice. Working with grasses grown in his own garden and hawthorn twigs harvested from a local farm, Kazuhito weaves and stitches each element by hand into refined, rhythmic forms. As with dappled light, his work is as much about what is seen as what is cast in shadow.
Having trained in horticulture in Hokkaido and later at RHS Wisley in the UK, Kazuhito brings a gardener’s knowledge and a maker’s sensitivity to his work. The rhythm of the seasons is embedded in the work: each piece begins with a period of growth, gathering, and drying. His materials — once destined to decay —endure through craftsmanship, yet always carry the memory of their fragility.
The resulting pieces are both sculptural and ephemeral. Light plays a central role, activating the surface and casting shifting shadows across the wall. These shadows — which Kazuhito considers a form of drawing — are not incidental. They extend and echo the forms, becoming an integral part of the composition. “Shadow is three- dimensional,” he explains. “As the light changes or your point of view shifts, so too does the work.”
Kazuhito’s compositions range from circular and organic forms reminiscent of seedheads to linear arrangements that suggest wind-blown branches or ripples of water. Each work reflects a deep, quiet dialogue between the artist and his material. Some pieces are planned; others evolve intuitively — each twig added in response to the gesture of the last.
Komorebi | Dappled Light offers a meditative encounter with the natural world. Through patience, observation, and material knowledge, Kazuhito Takadoi invites us to pause and witness — to observe not only nature’s beauty but its fragility, its rhythms and its quiet resilience.
Kazuhito trained in Agriculture and Horticulture in Japan the US and in the UK, before studying Art and Garden Design in the UK. In 2019 Kazuhito was awarded a Special Mention at the prestigious Loewe Crafts Prizeand his work is now included in the Toshiba Galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museumin London.
