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Yutaka Inagawa | | |
Yutaka Inagawa
Hybrid
Have you ever, while looking up the milkyway, recognized an arrow aiming at the Scorpio? The Sagittarius, found next to the Scorpio, is the ninth among the twelve zodiac signs. The Sagittarius is the mythic creature Centaurus, the half-human and half-horse, namely the hybrid.
- Artistic Hybridization
Hybrid, meaning a crossbred, is a term used in biology for a mutation by hybridization. As it is impossible to happen naturally, intercourse between different species could cause an unexpected embarrassing result no less than some harmonious reconciliation of both parties.
Like a hybrid character Centaurus in myth Yutaka Inagawa shows unique works which cut across the front and the sides of the canvas with plural media such as drawing, painting and photograph. The titles factitiously made up of several words already geminate another hybridity, and the strange clashes occur between the image and the title produce another hybrid.
On hybrid canvas surface Yutaka composes a new creature by mixing images of machinery resembles organs of body and utensils. A part of a machine transformed into bodily parts, or limbs joints of which accompanied a spoon or a fork are sort of Bio-Mechatronics. They are the creature of imagination influenced by cartoon and possible future at the same time.
We already live in an age when artificial kidney, heart, arm and foot complement our physical lacks and become a part of ordinary life. In spite of this, images of Yutaka give us strange impression through the organic form of images appear from the phantasmal background: the inappropriate combination of mechanic crudity and different structure. The pictorial surface, on which this kind of creatures float, used to be a kaleidoscope, is a part of the present, will be the future proper.
Regarding inorganic mechanical body as a biological species, hybridizing these is possible because the artist presupposes life. And we are curious about the kind of world that his future half-life and half-mecha would show.
-Emphasis of the laterality
Spectators normally appreciate a painting at the front. And then they move to the next painting, if it is the usual case. But Yutaka manipulates the laterals of the thin canvas. He elaborates these lateral sides so that the frontality of the proper painting is inversed. From colour, form to the density of images, in his works the laterals tell much lore that the frontal does.
This lateral-oriented paintings, resulted from his artistic temperament and the ornamental tastes as being a Japanese, are witty inventions that challenge the traditional system of appreciation. Like a surprise attack, it is also a successful strategy for attaining artistic originality.
These works make 2-dimensional paintings into cubes. On the one hand, there is a hybrid in his pictorial space, his canvas with the frontal and the laterals, on the other, bring forth another hybrid of two different dimensions. It is the joy of his hybridization and his arrow.
- Trap of hybrid
One of the problems of hybrid is a certain hybrid individual is impotent to bare offsprings. Likewise the hybridization in art has risks to take as well as much possibilities. The uniqueness of works of art, established on aspirations after the originality and eternality, accord with the limitation of single-generation in hybridization, Unlike the biological theory, however, hybridization in humanities have limitless possibilities.
It is certain that the concept of hybridization in art is quite different from the one in biological field. We don't even need to talk about the power of imagination and play, and the potentiality of healing. But displaying the differences and qualities of each field cannot but lead to make this humanistic hybridization be died out. Like the Centaurus, Chiron* shot by Odysseus went dead and became a constellation, various experiments of hybridization could be sterilized and remembered only as some temporary fashion. Only the endeavor of the artist can prevent and overcome this problem. Devoted challenges of Yutaka are being tested now. Those are his arrows, and I wish he could manage to shoot them so far that it makes the Centaurus on the constellation resurrect in art. Does this age want hybrid? How about you?
Joung-Hoon Lee (Art Studies · Seoul Foundation for Art & Culture)
Footnote
Chiron
Chiron, the Centaurus, educated by Apollon and Artemis, gods control sun and moon each, was good at hunting, medicine, music and prophecy. There are many of his pupils among the heroes in Greek myth: Achilles, the warrior at the Trojan war, Jason who went searching for the golden fleece, Asclepius, the snake-catcher, etc. Chiron was such a just and wise creature that Zeus made him a constellation after his death as a sign of tribute. |
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