On March 20th during the busiest art week in Tokyo, Frantic Gallery will be honored to present “The Resurrections”, Exhibition of pencil drawings by Taisuke Mohri from the series of work dedicated to hyper realistic techniques for bringing to life stone and bronze sculptures of eminent figures of Renaissance.

In Mohri’s works the representation of the face on paper gives itself to the viewer as a photo of a sculpture but as time of the observation unfolds and the distance between the eye and the image diminishes the statue comes alive disclosing to the viewer the ashy substance of pencil drawing as well as vivid traces of “organic body surface”.

Wrinkles, birthmarks, tiny skin swellings as well as purely organic smoothness and roundness of the casted head create visual oxymoron, generating constant shifts in perception of the image, which oscillates between physical presence and representation, between life and stone. The artist uses pencil as well as quality of human perception to make a Triple Maneuver. He depicts three-dimensional object on the surface of a paper in the way it looks as a sculpture installed in the space. Then he emphasizes the surface of the stone (“inside” the paper) by infusing flesh, skin and age in the image of the saints and warriors. Finally he “revives” the depicted figure itself driving “Life” into it so the figure provokes onlooker’s imagination on what might be the emotional state, the world inside the personage. First, eliminate the surface of the medium (paper), than bring the focus on the surface of sculpture, finally, create the illusion of “inside” of the resurrected person – this is the structure of photo-realistic labyrinth the artist offers us to experience.

Mohri’s “Resurrections” bring attention not only to the possibilities of hyperrealism to create decisive 3-dimentional images. His triple move brings new questions to the relationship between “original” and “re-presented”, “surface” and “content” of a figure, shedding light on the visual qualities of life itself.