A contemporary artist, Hisashi Tenmyouya introduceć“ currently the most remarkable and a new generation sculptor Kenichi Asano’s solo exhibition at the hpgrp GALLERY TOKYO.
Asano has worked on the theme of becoming a new and another incarnation through media such as transformation, possession, and puppet, that influence obtaining power. For this exhibition, a main piece “The Warrior”, which applies “mask” as a medium for accessing another world, will be presented.Conforming to the manners of Noh, the drivable variant(cyborg) with golden eyes intends to transcended us in this world, while the vividly an emitting helmet and a visor of the armor, the bracelet and greave are applied to the shell, these express deified human beings by the overwhelming power. Classical techniques and a sense of the near-future fuse acrobatically. Asano’s works, which integrated by his mind and techniques maximum, are certainly worthy of being called BASARA, that is a hybrid of extravagant and extraordinary. BASARA stands on the opposite end of the spectrum from wabi sabi and is extravagant and extraordinary which is incompatible with Otaku culture. It is successive family to the tradition of that deviates from repressed social structure in Japan and praises the hybrid attraction of KABUKIMONO in the Sengoku era and UKIYOESHI in the end of the Edo period. It can be said that this cyborg is an incarnation transcended a theory of the world. This is because the cyborg is a projection of immobilized fixed object, in other words, it is a reflection of subjective human beings casting aside the sculptural status.We wonder where to the audience are taken when they confront with expanded avatar to the limit, that is to say, “The Warrior”, through “mask” as a device.An old and new God descends here by the new generation artist. Five new pieces apart from the main work “The Warrior” are showcased.
*image (left)
© Kenichi Asano
courtesy of the artist and hpgrp Gallery
