Shintaro Okamoto likes to say that not everyone in Anchorage, Alaska, where he grew up, plays with ice. But he did, and it went way beyond being a diversion. He turned it into art — and then a career.
For Okamoto, who grew up learning tricks of the trade from his father, the appeal of working with ice, as opposed to materials like marble and clay, is how the work quite literally evaporates.
“It’s an ephemeral material,” he says. “It’s very humbling.”
You can see Okamoto in action Saturday at the Ice Festival in Central Park, where he and his crew of four will turn several large blocks of ice into a 10-foot-tall frozen simulacrum of the park’s famous Alice in Wonderland sculpture. Think of it as a whole new take on a winter “Wonderland.”
The first step in the making of the sculpture, Okamoto says, is to rev up the chain saws and start carving up the 4-foot-by-21-foot blocks.
“About 70 percent of the work is done with chain saws,” he says. “It’s amazing how much finesse you can get with a machine that looks so brutal.”
Next they’ll switch to smaller tools, such as die grinders and drills, to craft smaller details like clothing and facial features. The crew will then fuse the pieces together into the final sculpture using cold water. “It’s like putting your tongue on a cold metal pole,” he says.
After some touch-ups with chisels and handsaws, the crew gives it a quick hit from a torch — yes, there’s fire involved — to enhance and clarify the ice.
In case of an unexpected heat wave, dry ice will be packed around the figure to refreeze it.
“Dealing with the weather,” Okamoto says, “ is part of [the] suspense — and the fun.”
Saturday, live ice-sculpting from 3 to 5 p.m., Ice Festival from 3 to 7 p.m., free. Naumburg Bandshell (mid-park, from 66th to 72nd Streets); CentralParkNYC.org/events/individual-events/ice-festival-2017.html
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