"Art exists at the border between the ordinary and the extraordinary," Setsuko Ishii said. "Light is something that essentially cannot be bent, nor shaped, nor even held. Yet in holography light can be molded like clay, or woven like thread. Through holography I want to create a certain set of circumstances in an environment of light and space. I hope that the experience of this environment can stimulate new ideas and feelings in the viewer."
Ishii goes by the sobriquet of "magician of light." She is described as a "spinner of threads of luminescence through space, creator of a fantasy world." She says light is her paint. She hates frames. She wants her work to be viewed from all sides, so that reflections and movement may be seen as they are in nature.
Hers are difficult concepts for anyone unfamiliar with the realm of holography. As an art medium, holography is less practiced than most. It is a three-dimensional technological type of photography in which images are formed, without the use of lenses, from light waves. Ishii chose to become a holographer about 25 years ago, and has been a specialist ever since. Nowadays, she said, she is "pursuing the possibility of expression in architectural and outdoor spaces."