One of the shows we were excited to visit in person this month in Tokyo was the legendary work of Hajime Sorayama, who seems to be riding a new wave of fame and notoriety with his sexual and futuristic fantasy paintings and sculptures. NANZUKA Underground just opened a new exhibition, Sex Matter, a new series of sexually graphic paintings to coincide with another new body of work, Trex showing at Nanzuka 2G (more on that tomorrow).
There has always been a bit of wonder in the works of Sorayama, from his early works with Star Wars and now his explicit works centered on lust and sex. But he is always looking forward at what our bodies and fantasies may look like, and many ways, what our desires could become. Movies like Ex Machina or even Her have touched on the male's sexual fantasies in a not so distant future, and yet the Japanese artist has long been more overt and direct in his depictions. Metaphors are there, yes, but the graphic nature tends to draw you into a mixture of fantasy and erotica.
In his solo exhibition Sex Matter, Sorayama took on the challenge to create robot works inspired through such aforementioned themes surrounding sex. While at first glance appearing like a peculiar scheme, it is through these works that Sorayama explicitly emphasizes the fact that life is born in this world through the existence of both the male and female sex. They can also be considered to suggest new issues of concern for the future that lies beyond themes such as physical remodeling, the post-human body, and AI. This exhibition features a selection of approximately 10 new paintings alongside new human-scale sculptural works.