To visit the exhibition which is held at the “Gallery Complex” in Shirogane-takanawa, I get in the elevator and push the button for the third floor on which the gallery is located. Hearing the elevator doors opening with the sound “Chin!” I get out and immediately find a trooper sculpture created by Motohiko Odani. It looks like a sculpture of a zombie, rags wrapped around his waist, holding a Japanese sword upside down, and with his eyes glaring and his muscles all over his body bared. A horse, on which he rides, is created with the same features as the trooper, and the harness equipment, including the saddle and bit, are made to look worn out. In contrast to the appearance of the trooper, horse and harness, the Japanese sword and the pedestal on which the sculpture stands appear to be new and beautiful things. The pedestal, which seems to be made of paulownia, looks like a casket. It seems that this sculpture implies two opposite meanings, life and death, in parallel. I suppose that Odani intends this work to make a dramatic impression on viewers arriving via the elevator. The effect is more muted if we encounter the work after walking from the entrance of the gallery, where we would arrive if we used the stairs. Therefore, it can be said that in this exhibition entitled “Motohiko Odani: SP 4 ‘The specter’ in modern sculpture” (Yamamoto Gendai, 04/Apr/2009-02/May/2009), the exhibits have a great impact on the image of the exhibition site.

     Nevertheless, Odani’s works also give us another impression apart that from that affecting the exhibition space. I do not have a clear image of the trooper sculpture, which looks like a zombie statue, or at least a life-sized stereoscopic model. Nonetheless, a zombie is a common character in some media, including comics, video games and horror films. For example, in a comic entitled “Berserk” written by Kentaro Miura, which has been serialized in the “Young Animal” (Hakusensha), there is a character named “Death’s Head”, the image of which is very similar to that of Odani’s trooper sculpture. In addition, coming close to the work and looking at it for a while, we find that we have seen other works which have the same texture as this work. The texture of Odani’s works can be said to be based on that of ancient Buddha statues, created a few hundred years ago, the brilliant color of which has faded with the passage of time.

     Secondly, I would like to focus on Odani’s sculpture of a nude with lilies in her hair, holding a heart in her right hand and smiling fearlessly. In this work, the nude’s body has an arabesque design. It evokes for me the image of “Celestial Nymph Playing in the Flower Garden” (timber/wash drawing, 121.7cm×30cm×24cm, 1930, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music collection), whose entire body is decorated with a scaly-like design, and which was created by the sculptor, Heihachi Hashimoto, who was active in the Meiji era. Going further into the past, such old-fashioned color is also found in the work named “Tamamushinozushi” (mid 7th century, Horyuji collection), which was made in the Asuka era during which time the arabesque design was introduced into Japan. It may be noteworthy that the above-mentioned work by Hashimoto evokes for us the image of sculptures created before the modern age, rather than that of Rodin-styled sculptures, which were made actively in the Meiji era.

     Therefore, it can be said that Odani’s works presented in this exhibition were completed by assimilating not only the history of sculpture but also cultural history, based on his own attempt to create a trooper sculpture and a nude sculpture, which have been made, to resemble zombies in appearance. It seems that his works reflect our perspective that we find beauty not only in Buddha statues but also in general antiques, even though their colors have dulled or they have other defects resulting from the passage of time. Therefore, regarding Odani’s works presented in this exhibition, the most interesting thing for me is to think about the future of these works, which were originally intended to be a metaphor for death. Will these works, namely, the living dead made of reinforced plastic, change in some way over a long period of time, as happened with the Buddha statues? Indeed, my desire to see the future of the zombie may be just nonsense spoken by a person who does not recognize the reason for this world.
(Translated by Nozomi Nakayama)