Leilehua Lanzilotti

the sky in our hands, our hands in the sky (2023)

single-channel video
47 minutes
directed by Leilehua Lanzilotti
music by Leilehua Lanzilotti
cinematography by Gahlord Dewald

Commissioned by The Noguchi Museum

The hidden soundscapes of Toshiko Takaezu’s closed ceramic forms have long captivated Leilehua Lanzilotti, Kanaka Maoli sound artist, composer, and co-curator of the Takaezu retrospective upstairs. 

Over the course of several years, Lanzilotti collected recordings of Takaezu’s closed forms, gently tapping their surfaces and revolving them so the small ceramic rattles within them resound.

Like Takaezu, Lanzilotti finds echoes of the brilliant landscapes of Hawai‘i in the combination of vibrant glazes and quiet interior aural environments. Lanzilotti has combined the recorded sounds of Takaezu’s closed forms with footage shot on Hawaiʻi island, at the base of Kīlauea, the slopes of Mauna Loa, and the top of Mauna Kea. In the overlay of sound, texture, color, and light, we get the feeling of being inside Takaezu’s multisensory landscapes.

the sky in our hands, our hands in the sky honors the wahi pana (translated literally as, “places with a heartbeat”) featured throughout. Kū kiaʻi mauna.

// Press for the sky in our hands, our hands in the sky

Brooklyn Rail’s THE NEW SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT#1041: Curators Glenn Adamson and Kate Wiener and composer Leilehua Lanzilotti join scholar Christina Yang for a conversation.

Feature in Art Currently

Feature in Brooklyn Rail: ArtSeen

“The composer played a variety of the artist’s bronze bells and closed forms—some of which contained small objects that were dropped inside of them before they were fired in a kiln, creating variable rattle-like qualities. The result is a patient exploration of those peculiar resonances; frictive, clattery accents punctuating longer swells of decaying tones and muffled, extended rumbling that sounds as if recorded underwater.” — Peter Margasak, The Best Contemporary Classical Music on Bandcamp, June 2024

Takaezu’s works featured sonically in the installation:

Alchemy #1, c. 1995
Stoneware
61 × 29 1/2 in. (154.9 × 74.9 cm)
Honolulu Museum of Art, Gift of Toshiko Takaezu, 2005, 13529.1

Closed Form, n.d.
Porcelain
8 x 10 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Honolulu Museum of Art, Gift of The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, 2011, and gift of anonymous donor, TCM.1993.18.2

Closed Form, n.d.
Stoneware
8 3/4 x 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. (22.2 x 21.6 x 21.6 cm)
Honolulu Museum of Art, Gift of The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, 2011, and gift of the Artist, TCM.2007.5.3

Closed Form, 1988
Porcelain
6 1/4 x 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 in. (15.9 x 13.3 x 13.3 cm)
Honolulu Museum of Art, Gift of The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, 2011, and anonymous gift, TCM.2000.31.17

Closed Form, 1980
Porcelain
8 3/8 x 5 3/4 x 5 3/4 in. (21.3 x 14.6 x 14.6 cm)
Honolulu Museum of Art, Gift of The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, 2011, and anonymous gift, TCM.2000.31.15

Garden Seat, c. 1967
Stoneware
11 1/2 x 11 1/2 x 11 1/2 in. (29.2 x 29.2 x 29.2 cm)
Honolulu Museum of Art, Gift of The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, 2011, and gift of Ken Kingrey, TCM.1981.10.975

Closed Form, n.d.
Stoneware
22 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. (57.2 x 26.7 x 26.7 cm)
Private Collection

Closed Form, 2009
Stoneware
20 x 12 1/2 x 12 1/2 in. (50.8 x 31.8 x 31.8 cm)
Private Collection

Form (River Stone), n.d.
Porcelain
4 x 11 x 11 1/2 in. (10.2 x 27.9 x 29.2 cm)
Private Collection

All works © Family of Toshiko Takaezu

Currently on View

September 11, 2024–January 12, 2025 — Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI

March 2–May 18, 2025 — Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX

September 8–December 23, 2025 — Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI

February 13–July 26, 2026 — Honolulu Museum of Art, HI

Past Exhibitions

March 20 to July 28, 2024 — Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within, The Noguchi Museum, New York, NY