Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Yuichi Ikehata’s Powerful Sculptures of Physical Fragments

Japanese sculptor and photographer Yuichi Ikehata creates chilling scenes that bridge the gap between reality and fiction. In his surreal ongoing series “Fragment of Long Term Memory," his intention is to comment on the fragmentary nature of memory and render it physical. "Many parts of our memories… are often forgotten, or difficult to recall. I retrieve those fragmented moments and reconstruct them as surreal images. I gather these misplaced memories from certain parts of our reality, and together they create a non-linear story, resonating with each other in my photographs," he says.

Japanese sculptor and photographer Yuichi Ikehata creates chilling scenes that bridge the gap between reality and fiction. In his surreal ongoing series “Fragment of Long Term Memory,” his intention is to comment on the fragmentary nature of memory and render it physical. “Many parts of our memories… are often forgotten, or difficult to recall. I retrieve those fragmented moments and reconstruct them as surreal images. I gather these misplaced memories from certain parts of our reality, and together they create a non-linear story, resonating with each other in my photographs,” he says.

Currently living and working in Chiba, Japan, Ikehata uses wire to provide the scaffolding for a human form (modeled after himself) before covering it with paper and clay in a fragmentary fashion. The effect is simultaneously destructive and exploratory. While these sculptures seem to decay, they also highlight the physical form. Ikehata aims to explore the blurred distinction between reality and fiction: “Reality is a key to access the unrealistic world, and unreality is also a key to access reality.” In the space between reality and unreality exists Ikehata’s sculptures—they are human, yet industrial; they are intimate, yet alienating.

There is a sense of desperation present in many of his sculptures; splayed fingers, contorted toes, a hostile grimace. In the most ambitious of his sculptures, the full-form of a human body, the figure seems almost to be blowing away, flesh falling away to reveal a mechanical under-structure. The ghostly white pallor and blank stares of these sculptural self-portraits suggest a certain morbidity. Despite, or perhaps because of, this darkness, a poetic sensibility runs throughout Ikehata’s series: “I collect the fragments,” he says. “Edit, arrange, and capture them.”

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Argentinian-born artist Nicola Constantino pushes the controversial issue of animal rights and the relationship between birth and mortality in her sometimes graphic, always peculiar sculptures of animals. Whether a pig hanging from a conveyor belt, or birds compressed into perfectly round balls, the sculpted animals in Constantino’s works are manipulated in ways that feel forced and staged for human needs.
Karine Jollet's collection of brains, hearts and skulls sounds like something out of a scary film - but her creations are far from gruesome. Rather, her anatomically inspired soft sculptures appear dreamy and elegant. "Observing anatomy fills me with wonder and respect," the artist writes on her website, "In my eyes, there is nothing morbid in anatomy; I can only see the beauty and wonderful complexity of forms and vital functions."
Originally from Mexico City, Texas-based Gabriel Dawe primarily uses thread as a means of creating fantastical installations. Combining fashion and architecture, his vibrant threaded works (covered here) exhibit a certain strength and delicacy. Dawe's ongoing series of sculptures play with textiles on a much smaller scale. Instead of large spaces, in "End of Childhood", Dawe binds a child's toys such as metal cars and plastic animals like elephants, horses, and dinosaurs.
Bonsai, the art of growing miniature trees, has a magic power to transport us to another world, a quality shared by Patrick Bergsma's "Landscape-Sculptures". Inspired by these miniature landscapes that have existed in Japanese culture for over a thousand years, the Dutch artist sought to create his own versions of the tiny lands. Many Japanese cultural characteristics, in particular the influence of Zen Buddhism, inform the bonsai tradition in Japan. However, this harmony is disturbed by Bergsma who incorporates mini "marooned people" into post-apocalyptic scenes.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List