CINEMATIZE [2016]
1. Rebirth
Tanking Machine (1990) is essentially Kenji Yanobe’s debut production. A white tank built with iron welding cuts off information from the physical world, and the inside is filled with a physiological solution of sodium chloride that is heated to approximately body temperature. Yanobe himself, as well as audience members, were able to actually enter this device and enter a state of meditation while being unified with the work. Yanobe, the producer of Tanking Machine, successfully expressed as modern art the values and esthetics he had cultivated from early childhood through the influences of subcultures such as science fiction, special effects movies, anime and manga, as well as pop culture. This brought Yanobe huge attention as one of the leading lights of a new wave of “neo pop” that engulfed Japan at the beginning of the 1990s.
2. Survival
In 1991, an accident occurred at the Mihama Nuclear Power Plant, in which an extremely small amount of radioactive material leaked outside. Yellow Suit (1991), produced immediately thereafter, is a thick protective suit made with iron plates and lead to block out radiation. Also attached are a protective suit for one’s pet dog and an oxygen generation device based on the photosynthesis process of plants. The Yellow Suit was the first suit to feature a Geiger counter for detection of radiation, and was the prototype for Yanobe’s later masterpiece – the Atom Suit (1997) radiation protective gear.
In 1992, Yanobe produced the private train entitled Survival System Train (1992). This brought together various pieces of equipment with functions necessary for surviving modern society, including an oxygen generation container, a water distillation container, and household tools, forming a survival-themed fortress in museums and galleries based on Yanobe’s own delusion.
3. Atomic Suit
Yanobe set about developing the Yellow Suit (1991) in pursuit of radiation protective gear with greater functionality, which led him to start working on the Atom Suit, with Geiger counters fixed to cover delicate organs of the human body (such as eyes, viscera, and genitalia), and the suit flashing sounding an alarm when radiation is detected. The initially produced Radiation Suit Atom (1996) features a color scheme in homage to “Astro Boy”, with a humorous form reminiscent of a cartoon character’s costume. Radiation Suit Uran (1996) is a model specifically designed for women and can be attached to a shower that removes radioactive material.
Atom Suit (1997) was produced for the Atom Suit Project (1997-2003) that investigated Chernobyl after the nuclear power plant accident that occurred there, and this suit not only features a refined beauty of form but also has practical functions for protecting oneself from high concentrations of radiation by washing away radioactive material that has become stuck to the body. The Mini Atom Suit (2003), designed for use by children, was produced with the 3-year-old children Yanobe met in Chernobyl in mind.
Inserting 100 yen coins will activate the Atom Car (White) (1998), but it will stop when the on-board Geiger counter detects radiation ten times. Visitors have to keep dropping coins into its slot in order to drive (survive), producing an ironic vision of atomic energy in a city of the future.
Bunker Bunker (Diorama Model) (1999) is an underground shelter model filled with items for emergency use for surviving in “The Ruins of the Future”.
4. Time Travel to “The Ruins of the Future”
Atom Suit Project: Antenna of the Earth (2000) is an installation that features a life-sized doll of Yanobe himself, a huge number of Atom Suit figures, and Atom Suit Project photographs that were taken in Chernobyl after the nuclear power plant accident there. Radiation that comes flying in from space randomly pours onto the earth, but Yanobe, focusing on this fatalistic interest, produced Antenna of the Earth as part of his overlapping approach to communicating something as an artist while also receiving messages from nature.
The Atom Suit Project took a fresh look at illusions and delusions in subcultures and pop culture in light of the Great Hanshin Earthquake and near-simultaneous sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, in order to regain a sense of reality through one’s own body. For Yanobe, who was living in Berlin at that time in 1995, Chernobyl after the nuclear power plant accident represented “The Ruins of the Future” of reality. This was also connected to Yanobe’s wish to travel back in time to “The Ruins of the Future” that he had seen in the disassembly of Osaka’s Expo Commemoration Park as an infant. However, the reality of his encounters with people living there went beyond his expectations, which led Yanobe to regret and repent for having used the victims of this disaster in artistic expression, and he was burdened with a sense of atonement.
The life-sized doll of Yanobe himself in Antenna of the Earth was modeled on the statue of Kuya, which was produced in the Kamakura period. Kuya, said to be “Saint of the marketplace”, quickly spread faith to the masses during the Heian period, regardless of their status. The statue appears to be going around various countries, and the six small statues emanating from its mouth are statues of the Tathagata Amitabha. These are taken as representing six characters: 南, 無, 阿, 弥, 陀 and 仏. The figures emanating from Yanobe’s mouth perhaps signify his honest expression after removing his helmet.
5. The Future Sun
After the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster of 2011, Kenji Yanobe started to take a new approach, moving away from the external criticism of society that had typified his approach to date, and instead going into the community and actively changing reality with the power of art.
Sun Child (2011-12) , which Yanobe produced in year of the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster, is a monument produced as a symbol of hope, breaking down the status quo. This enormous statue of a child wearing radiation protective gear but with its helmet removed, and carrying a small sun in its right hand, embodies “hope for the future” with a desire to see resolution of energy problems and radioactive contamination in the next generation. Three of these Sun Child statues were produced and exhibited in various places around the world, including Moscow, Israel and Fukushima, and one of the statues is permanently installed in Yanobe’s home town of Ibaraki in Osaka Prefecture.
Temple of the Sun / Sun Child Island Concept Maqutte (1/50) (2011) is designed as a sacred artificial island with Sun Child as its deity statue, conceived as a site for marriage ceremonies in Kumamoto.
In 2014, Yanobe produced Sun Sister as an elder sister to Sun Child. The girl closes her eyes and gives a prayer in the direction of the flashing lights of the Breathing Sun (2014), then awakes and stands up, announcing that a new world has arrived as she stretches out her hands. Soon, Sun Sister will be vividly decorated and reborn as Flora (2015) in a collaboration with Sebastian Masuda.
Island of the Sun Concept Maquette (2015) is a plan that was drafted for the culture program of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics & Paralympics. It is a huge artificial island with a museum and an arena for concerts, and can be moved around Japan while being powered with renewable energy. This plan is of a scale similar to a moving Mont Saint-Michel, but the island itself is designed to become a single ecosystem coated with the appearance of a future version of Japan.
6. Revival: The Another Sun
When looking back at the photographs of his visit to Chernobyl, one photo stood out and gave Yanobe new inspiration. That photograph was Atom Suit Project: Nursery School 4, Chernobyl (taken in 1997 and produced in 2001), in which Yanobe is standing, wearing the Atom Suit and picking up a doll that has rotted, under a picture of the sun with a face that had been drawn on the wall.
After entering the 21st century, Yanobe set out the theme of “Revival” and announced the Viva Riva Project: Standa (2001). Yanobe produced this large baby doll that stands and looks toward the sun in an attempt to regenerate the scene in which he held a doll at the kindergarten in Chernobyl, superimposed with Yanobe’s thoughts on the lifting of one’s spirits that is connected to growth, after seeing his own child become able to stand by means of its own strength.
When the Geiger counter detects a certain level of radiation, the child doll, prostrate on the floor, lifts its heavy head. The work was named Viva Riva Project: Standa from Japanese writing in imitation of the pronunciation of the phrase “Stand Up”. Switching from a theme of “Survival” to one of “Revival”, Yanobe has sublimated his experience of Chernobyl in this monumental work of clear expression.
7. The Great Adventure of Torayan: The Agent of Kenji Yanobe
In 2003, Yanobe held a one-man solo exhibition called “Megalomania” at the National Museum of Art, Osaka, the site of Expo ‘70, which is the starting point for Yanobe’s imagination, and this was the last exhibition to be held at this venue before it was moved. Before constructing that solo exhibition, Yanobe’s father, who started ventriloquism after retirement, borrowed the Mini Atom Suit (2003) display item and put it onto his own ventriloquist’s dummy, creating Torayan (2004). Thereafter, a series of works was developed with this character as the protagonist, acting as Yanobe’s spokesperson.
The debut work featuring Torayan was Cinema in the Woods (2004). This movie theater specifically for children was produced for Yanobe’s own children. On the outside is Torayan, standing on top of a barrel, and inside there is a movie playing called “The World of Torayan”. The inside of the mountain hut is a shelter structure covered with solid iron, and food (confectionery) is also prepared. Torayan gives a warning to children by singing and dancing when it detects radiation.
The movie features Yanobe’s father together with his ventriloquist’s dummy, Torayan, giving messages to grandchildren, citing the US Department of Defense’s “Duck and Cover” instructional animation for children during the Cold War period, delivering an educational program that communicates how to protect oneself from nuclear weapons. Thereafter, Cinema in the Woods became a series including works such as Blue Cinema in the Woods (2006), featuring travel on an elephant’s back, etc.
Phantasmagoria (2007) is an enormous chandelier depicting the legend of The Great Adventure of Torayan on an iron sculpture using fretwork.
8. CINEMATIZE
This public installation turns one room of a museum into a movie set, with Kenji Yanobe in charge of film art for the sci-fi movie BOLT, written and directed by Kaizo Hayashi and starring Masatoshi Nagase. Shooting takes place during while the event is being held, with the theme of “Cinematization”.
The story tells of workers who go with a do-or-die attitude to stop coolant that has been contaminated with highly concentrated radioactive material after a leakage from a nuclear power plant following a huge earthquake. A documentary may be more suitable for simplifying and commenting on such a complicated problem, but this movie takes a sci-fi approach and looks at how people make decisions in extreme circumstances, placing the emphasis on the human spirit.
In line with the script of the movie, this installation consists of structures such as large objects, pools and tunnels to resemble a nuclear reactor. The nuclear reactor is arranged as a Ultra – Black Sun (2009) with a plasma-generating device (Tesla Coil) that can also be described as artificial lighting inside a “Fly’s Eye Dome”, which is a movable residence that easily be assembled and disassembled, as invented by Buckminster Fuller.
The Viva Riva Project New Deme (2002) displayed adjacently revives the abandoned motif of 《Deme》, the enormous robot that was deigned by architect Arata Isozaki for Expo ‘70 in Osaka, and the Iitate Monster Tower (2015) , which is arranged facing these, was planned as a monument of Fukushima’s local power company, using wind power to draw up water, hold it in its mouth, and spit it out. These installations project various messages to onlookers regarding matters such as humans’ rivalry and exchanges with energy.