One of the best exhibitions this year is undoubtedly SORAYAMA: LIGHT, REFLECTION, TRANSPARENCY - TOKYO - at the Creative Museum in the recently opened Toda Building, next to the ARTIZON (also a relatively new addition to Tokyo's ever-changing cityscape).
Sorayama may strike some as a rather limited artist. Since the 1970s he has focused on the sort of sexy iconography and feminised robots that would look at home in a glossy 80s porno mag. In fact, a lot of his art did appear in Penthouse Magazine, as well as Heavy Metal, the American science fantasy comics magazine.
Sorayama may strike some as a rather limited artist. Since the 1970s he has focused on the sort of sexy iconography and feminised robots that would look at home in a glossy 80s porno mag. In fact, a lot of his art did appear in Penthouse Magazine, as well as Heavy Metal, the American science fantasy comics magazine.
His template seems to be the Maschinenmensch from Fritz Lang's 1927 movie Metropolis.
Other touchstones are Star Wars, Disney, and the kind of dehumanised super model aesthetic channelled by the likes of Grace Jones, another 1980s reference point.
What makes this a compelling show is Sorayama's undoubted technique and his dedication to exploring his idealisation of the female form, which is not the soft squishy thing that most of us occasionally encounter, but something with the sleekness, hardness, and even the brutality of an art-deco icon.
Sorayama refers to this as "superrealism," further defined as the technical issues of how close the artist can get to his object. This quest has also led him from canvas to sculpture and video:
Sorayama refers to this as "superrealism," further defined as the technical issues of how close the artist can get to his object. This quest has also led him from canvas to sculpture and video:
But while sculpture can often seem heavy and lumpen, Sorayama's works play tricks with light, bouncing and reflecting it in their mirrored surfaces to constantly recreate themselves as new and unique artworks as the viewer moves his or her vantage point.
The show also includes a mock-up of his desk in his studio, reminding us, if we needed reminding, that this is art and man-made craft, not AI-generated slop:
Another twist that the show throws at you is how much the art is also the viewer.
Art of course is nothing without the eyeballs it attracts, and in this case the reflective propensities of Sorayama's art make this apparent by constantly incorporating the viewer into the artworks, often in unexpected ways.
Art of course is nothing without the eyeballs it attracts, and in this case the reflective propensities of Sorayama's art make this apparent by constantly incorporating the viewer into the artworks, often in unexpected ways.
EXHIBITION INFO
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