Japanese statues impress Yogyakartans

Japanese statues impress Yogyakartans

By R. Fadjri

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Free forms of three-dimensional objects fill
the modest gallery with various sculpting and engraving
techniques. One which especially catches the eye is Gentle
Seduction, a wooden statue two meters high. It reminds people of
a three-legged creature in science fiction films. There are bends
like joints in the wooden legs which seem to present an unsteady
standing position.

The three wooden legs support a ceramic cluster of forms
suggesting something that is growing.

This is the work of Japanese sculptor Shigeyo Kobayashi, 41,
whose exhibition at the Cemeti Gallery here through June 3 is his
second.

The graduate majoring in metal arts at the Bunka University in
Sapporo, Japan, was a student at the Indonesian Arts College in
Denpasar, Bali from 1994 to 1995 -- which may explain locals'
familiarity with some of his works.

Kobayashi combines both organic and nonorganic materials in a
strongly decorative style.

He uses forest wood, clamshells, coral, seeds, brass and
aluminum. He processes all the material into imaginative forms to
give a message which the layman might not always easily be able
to share.

One serial work, Listening for a crack, is composed from forms
resembling split, gigantic peanut shells in colorful hues.
Growing buds are seen in the open shells.

This work reflects Kobayashi's frequent theme of the
relationship between nature and man. He is apparently much
inspired by the process of the growth of plants which in their
turn produce very esthetic forms.

He says one source of his inspiration is his birthplace in
Sapporo.

"I always remember my grandmother's story of how plants absorb
the energy of the earth and the sun when in growth. If the energy
is not sufficient, plants will take it from man. That is why many
people become crazy when plants reappear toward the coming of
spring," he said.

For Kobayashi the mythology has become a fact. In Sapporo he
used to feel weak and shaky, but in Bali where he settled for
some time, he said he feels strong.

He said he learnt to make use of natural material but always
tries to avoid using too much of it, and combines his creations
with unnatural material.

The resulting exploration is striking and even provocative
works.

Bright contrasting colors, decorative beads made of seeds or
metal and exotic spiral forms constitute the dominant esthetic
language in his works.

The tendency toward such a decorative style is influenced to a
certain extent by the traditional Balinese style.

Kobayashi seems to have freed artistic skills from the
functional element usually attached to traditional art; his
sculpting and engraving techniques are only efforts to attain his
ideas of imaginative forms.