At first, the exhibition room is plunged into darkness with an announcement saying “This work needs a lot of electric power to work, so…” Around the huge horn-covered sphere which looks like a monster, there are already many viewers. Some staff members who seem to be engineers start to operate the machine and at the set time we suddenly hear a lot of noise saying “Geen, geen…!” From the cylinder in the center of the sphere, a blue-purple light is emitted in response to the noise and goes out in an instant. Although this light moves awkwardly, rather than smoothly, like a newborn baby, I recognize intuitively -not through experience - that it has so much power that it can destroy the other organisms. Therefore, the feeling which arises when I sit before the sphere is an instinctive fear which I feel as an animal, and I regret my frivolous expectations of this work. The above describes Yanobe’s latest work entitled “Ultra - the Black Sun” (corduroy steel, resonance transformer, carbon, FRP, water, and others, 2009) which was created using a lightning generator called a Tesla coil.

     The exhibition entitled “Kenji Yanobe - Ultra Exhibition” (11/Apr/2009-21/Jun/2009) is a relatively compact one and is composed of three sections, the titles of which are “I. Survival”, “II. Red Wood” and “III. Regeneration”. The first section contains representative works which feature the theme of “survival”, such as “Survival System Train” (iron, motor, glass, and others, 1992) which looks like a robot, and some other works which are displayed along the rail track, including “Radiation Suit, Atom” (Geiger counter, PVC, strobe light, and others, 1996), “M, the Night” (gas mask, brass, iron, and others, 2006) and “Mammoth Project: Robot Mammoth in the 20th Century” (iron, industrial waste products, 2004). On the wall, on one side, some video pictures are shown, such as “Atom Suit Project” which is a film of Yanobe travelling around the country wearing a suit with a built-in radiation sensor. On the other side, illustrations of the picture book entitled “Torayan’s Great Adventures” (2007) are displayed. Walking through this section, while looking at these works, we enter the next section named “II. Red Wood”.

     At the entrance of the small room, there is a red electronic billboard saying “Let’s meet in the forest.” In this room, there is a red carpet and a total of no less than 140 “Mini Torayan”s (Geiger counter, plastic, and others, 2007) are placed there. From the center of the ceiling is hung the work entitled “Fantasmagoria” in which Yanobe expresses the brilliant rays of a small sun, and this illuminates the whole room. This room is arranged for viewers to enjoy video pictures which are projected from his works, such as “Theater in the Forest” (mixed media, 2004), “Art Museum in Miya-no-mori” (iron, timber, monitor, film, Geiger counter, and others, 2007) and “Legend of the White Elephant” (iron, timber, monitor, plastic, Geiger counter, and others, 2008）. This section can be said to be a “world”, in which “Mini Torayan” is one of the inhabitants. We viewers get into Yanobe’s world, which is said to be a little bit paranoid, but we can enjoy his works nonetheless. Therefore, it is extremely unexpected for viewers to encounter the work entitled “Ultra - the Black Sun” at the end of this section, “II. Red Wood”. Although this work, which looks like a mammoth (it is a character from a special effects movie) presents a humorous aspect in appearance, actually it depicts something that is extremely violent and which can destroy the other organisms.

     I suppose “Ultra - the Black Sun” is a destroyer. Considering that the Japan World Exposition (1970) is the origin of Yanobe’s creative activities, it is highly possible that the title of this work reflects one of Taro Okamoto’s works entitled “Sun in the Past”, which was created on the reverse side of “Tower of the Sun”, using black tiles in the motif of a human face. However, if we consider only such external elements of this work, we cannot recognize what Yanobe intends to express through this work. It is true that viewers may feel the beauty in the flurry of sparks, but it is a fear of things whose implications they cannot grasp that they initially feel when looking at this work. I have never felt such fear when looking at Yanobe’s works before.

     Yanobe’s works have many stagey elements. “Roppongi Art Night” was held from sunset on 28 March, 2009 to 6pm the next day. In this event, which was held in Roppongi Hills as its main venue and involved surrounding art museums and galleries, the main visual exhibit was “Giant Torayan” (aluminum, iron, brass, FRP, expanded polystyrene, 2005). Measuring no less than 7.2 meters in length, this huge robot, which appeared at the Roppongi Hills Arena, succeeded in grabbing the attention of many viewers, especially because of its ability to shoot fire from its mouth in addition to its charming and rounded face. There were many viewers around “Giant Torayan” and they were eagerly waiting for it to shoot fire or move. I was also one of these viewers. I do not know how much the other viewers looked forward to seeing this work of Yanobe but for me it was not necessary to see the other exhibits or performances if I could only see this. Indeed, I looked on Yanobe’s works almost as fair stalls. The films of “Atom Suit Project” (particularly the one which was taken when Yanobe visited Chernobyl) made me feel that they were only bad jokes because of their strange style.

     This is the reason I was surprised at his new approach in the works which were displayed in this exhibition. These works have unexplained and overwhelming power. I suppose we can recognize what Yanobe intends to express through his works featuring the theme of “survival” only by feeling these works physically. In the last section named “Regeneration”, the work entitled “Atom Suit” (Geiger counter, PVC, strobe light, and others, 1997) which was created to appear partly damaged, no longer gave me the impression that it was a “bad joke”.
(Translated by Nozomi Nakayama)

"Kenji YANOBE - Ultra Exhibition"
11/Apr/2009 - 21/Jun/2009
Venue: Toyota Municipal Museum of Art