Reader's Digest Australia August/September 2025

F lowers never last, but Japa- nese floral artist Azuma Makoto has found a way to freeze their beauty: literally preserv- ing them in ice. One of his largest sculptures—created last February in Hokkaido, Japan, and pictured here—is five metres tall with hun- dreds of icicles that formed quickly in the sub-zero temperatures of the region. It’s the fleeting nature of these blooms that Makoto finds most intriguing. “Nothing is perma- nent in this world,” he told Atmos , a climate and culture publication. “The life cycle of a flower is so short; it’s practically just a moment.” Frozen in Time AZUMA MAKOTO MORE to DIGEST AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2025 | READERSDIGEST.COM . AU 6