Hideki Iinuma “Tokyo Paradise”
I went to see sculptor Hideki Iinuma’s solo exhibition “Tokyo Paradise.” The venue is SNOW Contemporary, just off the Nishi-Azabu intersection.
Stepping inside, a variety of female figure works spread out before your eyes.
Some thirty women in all, each with a different size and pose.
Each piece is carved from a different kind of wood — hinoki cypress, camphor, oak, willow, olive, and more. The color and grain shift subtly from one to the next.
The title “Tokyo Paradise” refers to a project depicting women living in the present day, and a number of model-like figures who seem to have stepped straight out of a women’s fashion magazine populate the show.
Carved from single blocks of wood, the works partially expose the marks of the chisel, and that has a real emotional pull.
The handling of color also stood out. Beyond the neat coloring of the works themselves — large and small alike — the white walls, delicately painted as a background, also seemed to add to the staging.
It was the final day, but only a handful of red-dot stickers were up.
This is my personal view, but the pricing struck me as somewhat aggressive (I would have bought a piece if it had been lower).
There are cases where wonderful works fail to attract a lasting fanbase because the prices are too high. Given how excellent the works are, it seemed a bit of a shame. It is a tricky problem…
