Ice, ice baby

Ottawa’s Suguru Kanbayashi was six years old when his father became one of the original ice sculptors at Winterlude. More than four decades later, Kanbayashi’s work is highlighted annually during the festival at Confederation Park and on Sparks Street

 

When the 48th annual Winterlude kicks off at the end of the month, more than 500,000 people are expected to flood Ottawa’s Confederation Park to witness the live creation of ice sculptures by ice carvers from all over the world.

 

For many, seeing the sculptures (and taking selfies for socials) is an annual tradition. But for Ottawa’s Suguru Kanbayashi, it’s a family affair.

 

In 1985, Kanbayashi’s father, Chef Ikuo Kanbayashi was asked to help a team of Japanese carvers do an exhibition carving at Winterlude. He enjoyed it so much that the following year, Ikuo approached the National Capital Commission to do another, and carved a locomotive train, earning a place as a staple in the local ice-carving scene.

His son, who grew up around the art form, completed his first carving ­– a commissioned figure of a swan – at age 14. It was the first time the younger Kanbayashi, who was raised in Stittsville, had wielded a chainsaw, and it became a core memory. “It cut through the ice like a hot knife through butter, which was really cool,” he says.

 

Getting his start at Winterlude

 

A year later, he was helping out with ice carvings for Winterlude. At age 17, Kanbayashi competed in the seven-ice block competition, carving the alien from TV’s The Simpsons with a sign reading “Human Exhibit =>” – pointed at the public.

 

Like his father, Kanbayashi became a festival regular, bringing to life a page from a Spider-Man comic book; a two-metre tall Gundam Mobile Suit; a human male covered in spheres examining a small stack of cubes; two children playing knight vs. monster, with their shadows of their imagined forms; a giant elephant scared by a mouse (causing a chain reaction of mayhem for a clown); and a surfer riding a giant wave of water.

 

 

“With every competition, you learn so much,” says Kanbayashi. “I would always be eager to try out new tools and techniques. The physical and mental relief of finishing the competition, celebrating with fellow competitors and watching the public enjoy everyone’s artwork is very satisfying… I love listening to people figuring out the story that I am telling through the piece.”

 

Kanbayashi went on to work with well-known carvers including Ross Baisas, Aaron Costic and Junichi Nakamura, who he says “are considered to be masters of ice sculpting.” It was with the latter that he teamed up to carve a piece titled “Surfacing Kingfisher” in Fairbanks, Alaska in 2009. The 2.5-metre-tall, two-metre-wide sculpture, carved out of a single 6,000-pound block of ice harvested from a pond in Fairbanks, won the pair the World Ice Art Champion title that year. Other awards amassed over his career include half a dozen titles at Winterlude; a repeat third-place award in Poznan, Poland; a third-place award in Matsumoto, Japan in 2006; and a fourth-place standing at the World Ice Art Olympics Cultural Event in 2008.

 

Challenges

 

“The first challenge to being a competitive carver is the physicality of moving and arranging around twenty 300-pound blocks of ice and carving it in a 25- to 32-hour time limit,” says Kanbayashi. “The second challenge is mental, where you have to work as fast as you can while being physically tired, and execute your plan as a team of two to carve it.”

 

These challenges are also what attracts Kanbayashi to the medium. “You can carve/sculpt ice so fast, you are limited not by tools but by your mental capacity to figure out what and where to carve.” The finished piece is a visual treat. “Since we use crystal clear ice, the resulting artwork sparkles and shines like nothing else. The sculpture you see in the day looks completely different lit up at night.”

 

 

 

Problem solving and 3-D spatial reasoning are skills Kanbayashi uses as an ice carver. “Any art includes problem solving,” he says, “but ice sculpting takes it to a whole another level with the environment, size and speed of the process.”

 

 

“You can't practice a 6,000-pound ice carving, so each competition you are carving something you have never done.”

– Suguru Kanbayashi

Ice carving is surprisingly similar to his work at Cision, where he’s a software developer. “Both disciplines have environmental variables that are constantly changing and need to be managed,” says the Carleton University alum. “I think that being an ice sculptor has made me a better developer, and vice-versa.”

 

Switching gears

 

Last year, Kanbayashi stepped down as president of the Ottawa-based Canadian Ice Carver’s Society, where he served on the executive for over two decades in order to spend more time with his family (wife Leigh and sons Hiroki, 10, and Koji, 5).

 

 

More free time has allowed him to launch a personal endeavor – creating ice-carving workshops. “I hope to make ice carving accessible to the public and to find the next great ice carving talent to nurture,” he says.

 

Read more about Kanbayashi’s workshops in “Learn to carve ice in the capital.”

 

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A Q&A with Suguru Kanbayashi

Parenting Times: What is your favourite subject to carve?

Suguru Kanbayashi: Since ice sculptures are very static, carving something that is dynamic and tells a story is the key to a popular piece.

PT: Which of your sculptures would you consider to be your favourite, and why?

SK: I really like shapes that repeat.  One of my favorite sculptures was at Winterlude and involved attaching 500 or so crystal-clear ice spheres of various sizes to a human form. Each sphere refracts light differently so shifting your perspective a tiny bit creates a whole new perspective of the piece.

PT: Which of your sculptures were you the most underwhelmed with, and why?

SK: Corporate logos, much cooler in ice, but underwhelming in terms of art.

PT: What do you do if your sculpture breaks?

SK: If it’s cold enough, it can probably be reattached with some water. If it’s too warm, that would be impossible. If the sculpture does break, it was most likely due to poor planning and execution, so it’s a lesson to be learned.

PT: Larger-scale or smaller-scale pieces, and why?

SK: Right now, I prefer smaller pieces. It’s an avenue that has not really been explored in the world of ice carving. Smaller ice sculptures are more accessible for novice ice sculptors and it allows them more opportunity to practice and learn the basics of ice as a medium. In addition, I find that small ice sculptures look better on digital screens especially at a macro level. I am attempting to popularize small ice sculptures on YouTube and TikTok.

PT: You do commissions. What was the most unusual thing you’ve been asked to carve?

SK: A piece that is definitely not family friendly. 

PT: Do you carve anything else? Wood? Clay?

SK: Only ice. I tried wood and clay, but I find it slow and the finished pieces are never as impressive in size and finish.

PT: We need some advice. How does one improve as an ice carver?

SK: Practice and then ask for feedback/advice. Repeat until you retire.

 

Follow one of Ottawa’s best-known ice carvers on social media

youtube.com/@SuFaICE

tiktok.com/@sufaicemedia

facebook.com/CanadianIceCarversSociety