In February 2002 I had the pleasure of seeing the Neo-Tokyo exibition at the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art. One of the small instillations featured artist Kenji Yanobe and I fell in love with his work.Fast forward to August 2003, I spent a sleepless night in a hallway at the Toji-an Guest House. My room was booked out to somebody else during the Daimonji festival. I left in a huff demanding a refund and headed of to Osaka after falling through the bathroom floor. While waiting for the train to come I read a copy of the Japan Times and I stumble across Kenji Yanobes exhibition at the old expo centre in Osaka. If it were not for the above sequence of events I would have never known about it, so I guess I should forgive the Toji-an guest house for their error.
So I headed of to the exhibition centre after leaving my luggage at a new, clean hotel. I had no sleep but it didn't stop me. This time I got to see his complete works with the added bonus of me being the only person there. To this day it is one of my greatest memories of Japan.
You can view some of Kenji Yanobe's work at this web site Yanobe Kenji Art Works . His work is a comment on the affects of the post oppocalyptic nuclear world. Although the subject matter is quite heavy the art work also reflects Japanese cute culture and manga based on the works of Osamu Tezuka. His Atom Suit project being a direct link to Tezuka's influence. His style is most definately unique and walking around his exhibition I felt like he had transormed me to another world. I rounded the day off buying some posters of his works and a model of his Atom car.
