Osamu Takada “Metal, Clay, and Osamu”
We visited sculptor Osamu Takada’s solo exhibition “Metal, Clay, and Osamu.” The venue is “MU Higashi-Shinsaibashi Gallery,” a gallery in Shinsaibashi, Osaka.
Osamu Takada apparently loves himself. His self-produced art book is packed with self-portraits — selfies, purikura print-club photos, and even his driver’s license — with plenty of exposure of his own face alongside the work photos.
The exhibited works are titled “Osamu Human,” with a percentage notation according to size.
Based on his own height of 174cm, a work 33cm tall is titled “Osamu Human 19%,” with the ratio built into each title.
The works use stainless steel as a skeleton and build the body from small parts of ceramic and porcelain.
For each body part, about ten pieces are fired in the kiln, and they are assembled like a puzzle.
In some places the parts don’t fit perfectly, but the imperfect state is human, and that’s OK.
Osamu Takada is fond of TV hero shows and said he “wanted to make something like Goranger” — this series is the result. He mentioned he began working on them about a year ago.
Osamu Takada has a solo exhibition in Tokyo coming up in the autumn as well. He told us it will be a completely different set of works. We’re looking forward to that one, too!
*This article was reported on the day before the exhibition opened. Lighting and display methods may have been changed since.
