Nobutada OMOTE|SANDWICH
From mountains made of dreamlike foam to taxidermy lions covered with dew-drop beads, master alchemist Kohei Nawa gives a tour to some of his greatest creations so far...
Nobutada OMOTE | SANDWICH
"Works in the BEADS series are made by covering the surface of a motif with transparent spheres (cells)," the artist says, "transforming each into a shell of light."
Nobutada OMOTE | SANDWICH
"The texture and color of the object's surface are absorbed and fragmented within countless cells, which become a collection of image elements, in other words, image cells or PixCell."
Nobutada OMOTE | SANDWICH
"Small cells bubble up ceaselessly with the slight oscillations of a liquid. The cells gather together, totally covering the liquid as they spontaneously form a foam, an organically structured conglomeration of cells."
Nobutada OMOTE | SANDWICH
"The risen volumes of foam link together and reach saturation, but continue to swell, occasionally losing vitality and spreading out over the ground."
Nobutada OMOTE | SANDWICH
"The PRISM works are part of the PixCell series, where I turn motifs collected from the Internet into sculptures. Covering a transparent box (cell) containing a motif with prism sheets produces the alternating appearance and disappearance of images from perspectives that differ as the viewer's actual viewpoint changes."
Nobutada OMOTE | SANDWICH
"Scum refers to the layer that forms on the surface when something is boiled or fermented. In the Scum works, a skin of polyurethane foam, produced through a chemical reaction of two solutions, increases in volume just like uncontrolled cellular division."
Nobutada OMOTE | SANDWICH
"Manifold signifies having many different forms, or a structure that brings a number of pipes together. This is massive sculpture on the theme of information, matter, and energy."
Nobutada OMOTE | SANDWICH
"With the Swell works, I pour liquid polyurethane foam over motifs while rotating them 360 degrees. As this 'skin' continues to thicken, the motif's individual characteristics disappear."
Nobutada OMOTE | SANDWICH
A collaboration with choreographer, dancer, and singer Damien Jalet.
Nobutada OMOTE | SANDWICH
"The LIQUID works produce bubbles (cells) in fluid composed of a combination of water, silicone oil, surfactants, and pigments. The bubbles that appear on the surface, which glows white like a screen, depict 'pixels' and constitute units of stimulation that guide the senses as they quietly pop."
Nobutada OMOTE | SANDWICH
"Air Cell is created by dividing a space into a grid pattern, and placing dots of glue on the points where the grid lines intersect. The dots arranged in an orderly fashion at equal
intervals give the impression of undifferentiated cells being cultured en masse in light."
Nobutada OMOTE | SANDWICH
"GLUE is a category of works in which I attempt to bring materiality and the physical senses into alignment using thermoplastic adhesives."
Nobutada OMOTE | SANDWICH
For more of Kohei Nawa's works visit his site.

Story highlights

Kohei Nawa is one of the Japan's hottest sculptors

His new work in London supports Syrian refugees in Iraq

London CNN  — 

Japan’s Kohei Nawa is one of his homeland’s best known contemporary sculptors, sharing exhibitions there with the likes of Takashi Murakami and Anish Kapoor. Although “sculpture” might not be a big enough word to describe the shape-shifting phenomena that have become his dreamlike domain.

Nobutada OMOTE | SANDWICH
Foam, 2013 : "They should just feel like they're walking through clouds," Nawa has said.

In the series that has become a calling card for the 40-year-old artist, Nawa combs the internet’s taxidemermy auction sites for preserved animals, before pixelating their bodies with spheres of transparent epoxy resin. A sparkling deer sculpture from the series, “PixCell-Deer#24,” was purchased by the New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and is now in the institutions permanent collection. In October, a more modest deer’s head sold at auction for over $300,000.

But Nawa is prolific, and his armory includes an alchemical appreciation of a disparate materials, resulting in artworks that are less easily defined. For this years’ Force he snake-charmed a mystery, jet black liquid into ropes that trailed to the floor in a continually looping fountain. For an immersive installation Foam in 2013, he created a cloud-like, mountainous landscape from a critically balanced recipe of detergent, glycerin and water. And in an new series Moment he trails ink from a pendulum across a canvas in hypnotic, gyroscopic patterns.

On canvas or in sculpture Nawa’s works habitually harness physics as phenomenon and chemistry as spectacle. (See gallery at top.)

Nobutada OMOTE | SANDWICH
Force, 2015: A black liquid polymer drips in unbroken strands on the floor

In Europe and America, recognition of Nawa is growing – with megastars Antony Gormley and Anish Kapoor reported among his fans – but he is yet to achieve the same fame as in his native Japan.

Yet London is where Nawa traces his birth as a contemporary artist. He landed here in 1998 to spend seven months as an exchange student at the Royal College of Art: “In London, the YBAs had taken over the art scene, and spending time here during that period was the inspiration that led me into contemporary art,” he says. “I’ve wanted to hold an exhibition in London ever since I was a student, and I hope that this will lead to further opportunities to exhibit in Europe.”

Today, Nawa is back for his first-ever UK installation as part of She Inspires Art, a performance and fundraising evening on 16 September in support of charity Women for Women International’s work with women in Nigeria and Syrian refugees in Iraq, for which he will be creating a major installation at Bonhams auction house, New Bond St, open to the public on 15 and 16 September. A concurrent exhibition at Pace Gallery London – which explores “Force” through his Moment canvases and three other series – runs until 19 September.

Here, he talks collaborating with COMME des GARÇONS, what he learned at Art Camp, and how forces move him.

Many of your works take inspiration from physics and the forces which control the physical universe.

I’ve been interested in astronomy ever since I was a child. I used to go outside at night and stay there until dawn, observing and taking photographs of the moon and the stars. I no longer have the time to do that, but a continual awareness of the cosmos may well be appearing unconsciously in my work. When I experience something hazy being communicated by one sensibility within the cosmos to another sensibility via a material, I feel driven to capture that experience in a sculpture of some form.

Courtesy Pace London
Kohei Nawa

My exhibition at Pace London explores the idea of force which also relates to physics, which I conceive as a set of invisible operations dictating the behavior of materials. Force in this sense refers to the gravity that exerts an influence on all things that exist in a space, the force that allows vegetation to grow up from the ground, and the force that enables slime mold to creep along a wall. The exhibition includes drawings, sculptures and site-specific installations from my Direction, Ether, Catalyst and Moment series.

In my Moment series for instance, I use a pendulum device, unleashing ink onto a paper surface, creating a swirling set of concentric circles and overarching lines. The orderly nature of the lines seems to contradict the haphazard nature of their making, yet my work forces viewers to consider the effects of air pressure, distance, and the motion of the pendulum as agents in making the work.

Many people are now discovering your sculptures through the spectacular images shared online. Are they missing something by not seeing them in the flesh?

My art is three-dimensional, so it’s important to come face to face with the materials and to sense the whole of the space. Visually, my works have a very powerful image, but because of that, it’s easy to overlook much of the content if you do not see the actual work. This applies particularly to installations, where sounds and textures play a significant part.

Is there a person – living or dead – who has most influenced this recent work?

There is no particular artist who I see as a significant influence, but one formative event was Art Camp Hakushu, which I participated in as a student. Organized by Min Tanaka, the camp brought together dancers, artists and musicians from around the world to think about their art while sharing a self-sufficient agricultural lifestyle. That was where I first became interested in the idea of physicality, and I remember the camp as providing the trigger that caused me to think about the skin of a sculpture.

Courtesy Pace London
Nawa created portions of his Catalyst sculpture live in front of an audience during the launch of his new exhibition at Pace London. Take a look at other views from the show...
Courtesy Pace London
Nobutada OMOTE | SANDWICH
Courtesy Pace London
Courtesy Pace London
Courtesy Pace London
Courtesy Pace London
Courtesy Pace London
Courtesy Pace London
Courtesy Pace London
Courtesy Pace London
Courtesy Pace London
Courtesy Pace London

You’re known for employing extremely finely manipulated materials – especially plastics – to create unique outcomes.

My interest in phenomena and materials that exist on this earth predates any attempt to create a work. Constantly-changing materials sometimes lead me to discover phenomena that facilitate the visualization of human senses or the visualization of the invisible forces that exist on our earth. On other occasions, my approach includes deliberately investigating what sort of material to utilize in what sort of system in order to get closer to an expression that I am trying to attain in a particular piece.

What does “craft” mean to you, in an age where we’ll soon be able to 3D print to exact specifications? Will there come a point where craft is more about digital skill than physical skill?

3D printing and other advanced technologies are changing the concepts of time and space in the visual arts. In that context, artists and creative people involved in crafts need to cultivate the ability to distinguish between, and achieve a good balance between, techniques that can be expressed digitally and techniques that can only be expressed through human sensibilities.

At the launch of the Pace Gallery exhibition, you live-produced work at the gallery. Is it stressful to create in front of an audience?

I’ve done live painting in front of an audience several times. It can feel a little stressful at first, but as soon as I begin, my focus goes onto what I’m painting, and I forget that I’m being watched. In that sense, the audience does not really influence the work. Like the Ether work, I employ a fluid material in my Catalyst sculptures – in this case hot glue – to highlight the transition between liquid and material states. Catalyst works are net-like sculpture drawn directly on the wall. The strands of glue accumulate into an almost biological form that seems to crawl across the wall.

Was it a surprise to be chosen for Women for Women International?

I was a little uneasy about being asked to create something that would only be exhibited for such a short period, but I’m keen to participate in and contribute to an event that can make a real difference to the lives of women in desperate circumstances or recovering from trauma.

courtesy pace london
In 2011, Nawa was recruited to design headwear for Comme des Garcons' Spring/Summer 2012 runway show.

You worked with COMME des GARÇONS in 2012. Did you have a lot of discussions with (founder and designer) Rei Kawakubo?

There wasn’t a great deal of time available to complete this project, but I had an abstract discussion with Rei Kawakubo about texture, and she told me that she envisaged white as the color. However, I didn’t know what the collection’s theme was, or what sort of clothes would be worn together with the works I was producing. In those circumstances I kept experimenting with different shapes and materials until I was satisfied with the result. I’m sure it was a deliberate decision by Kawakubo to let me work freely without being influenced by considerations about designs or themes.