After recently introducing his work at Art Basel in Hong Kong, Tokyo's Nanzuka gallery will be opening Haroshi's first solo presentation at the gallery on 22nd of April. Guzo will feature a series of over twenty brand new sculptural works created from used skate decks along with a large installation piece.
We were lucky to get a look into artist's process of creating this new body of work which for the first time is almost exclusively figurative. For his big Tokyo debut with Nanzuka gallery, Haroshi created a series of figurines which pay tribute to Japan's love for toys and collecting. His work developed from an idea to give a new life to discarded skateboards. As a skater himself, the artist had a hard time throwing old decks away and simply replacing them. After producing sculptures from used skateboard decks for the last 15 years and developing unique concepts to manufacture them, Haroshi went back to his original process for this body of work. By compressing and gluing used decks, he creates solid blocks from which he then carves out desired shapes. Through his masterful craftsmanship he is able to carve out the smallest, most fragile details, and now, for the first time, use the colorful plywood layers to actually draw on the figurines and show their features. This technique gives the 3D sculptures somewhat of a 2D appearance, adding a bit of s comic feel to them. He also createda couple of fire hydrant pieces as an iconic symbol of skateboarding culture since late 90s, that will be displayed along with a life size quarter-ramp installation, also created from recycled skate decks. —Sasha Bogojev
