| Ultra Black Sun |
| Kenji YANOBE |
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Ultra Black Sun
Kenji Yanobe traces his creative beginnings to "ruins of the future."
For six months commencing in March 1970, Japan hosted its first world exposition. The Osaka Expo attracted 65 million visitors, equivalent to around half the Japanese population. The Expo, with its theme of "Progress and Harmony for Mankind," was crammed with examples of design inspired by a vision of humanity's future that coincided perfectly with the aspirations of Japan's people during a period of remarkable economic growth.
Yanobe did not actually visit the Osaka Expo, coming to live near the Expo site in 1971, after the event was over. By then, a major removal operation was underway, those futuristic designs so full of hope now cruelly demolished. The sight of these "ruins of the future" made a powerful impression on the six-year-old Yanobe.
2009's Ultra-black Sun marks a return to this mode of sculpture. Inside a giant steel dome, a Tesla coil discharges electricity to spectacular effect every few hours. It's a work that diverges somewhat from Yanobe's inner journey to date, the artist himself confessing bafflement as to what prompted him to make it. But, swollen to outsize dimensions as if the maker had forgotten its purpose, frightening onlookers with its awesome lightning display, Ultra-black Sun could well be the work (or device) that allows viewers to experience most directly the natural sciences, ethical conundrums, and hidden 'violence' of design that Yanobe has strived to express throughout his career.
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