JAPAN: Cityscapes of Iron

The great contemporary artist Enoki Chu was inspired to become a painter after an unfortunate motorcycle accident.

Chu decided to challenge himself and began exhibiting his paintings in 1965 to 1970 in the Kobe-based Niki-kai exhibitions.

One of his artistic inspirations was the infamous Marcel Duchamp, who is notorious for (among other ventures) exhibiting a urinal in 1917 and proclaiming it art.

Chu, enchanted with Duchamp’s “Chocolate Grinder” in 1972, began to take everyday objects and grind them up into bits and mash them together to form bullets — then shoot them out cannon-like so that they would be blown apart.

In 1972, Chu transformed his cannon experiment into a sculptural landscape. Using bits of metal such as iron, Chu manipulates the metal into sculptures, which he then compiles together to make a huge three-dimensional landscape.

The main piece show here: RPM-1200 is an iron representation of a futuristic cityscape represents the longevity of humans living on Earth.

“Enoki Chu: Unleashing the Museum” at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art runs till Nov. 27. For more visitor information (in Japanese), go to: www.artm.pref.hyogo.jp

More about this piece (in English) visit: Japan Times

 

 

 

 

 

 

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