Self-taught sculptor Masaya Hashimoto lives and works in a Buddhist temple, where he makes delicate plant sculptures out of deer bones and antlers. These ethereal, all-white works capture the paper thin leaves of life-size stems gently swaying in the breeze while single blooms are frozen in time just as their petals are beginning to unfold.
From 25 September, Hashimoto’s astonishingly-detailed sculptures will be on show alongside the works of a host of other contemporary Japanese artists as part of a show called Surface Tension at London’s White Rainbow Gallery in Fitzrovia.
Focusing on the work of four contemporary artists who use traditional techniques such as ink painting, woodcuts and carving, the show explores the marriage of traditional art forms with contemporary themes.
Hidenori Yamaguchi, who studied rinsho (the art of creating free-hand copies of established masterpieces) in China, will be showcasing a selection of his meticulous ink wash paintings. Painted using a very fine brush on silk and paper, the paintings are so detailed that at first glance they look like photographs.
Meanwhile, Kumi Machida draws upon her classical training in traditional Japanese Nihonga to create depictions of biomorphic humans awakening from surreal dream-like states and Sachiko Kazama uses the traditional art of woodblock printing to create art works that satirise contemporary society.
