Sunday Art Show: Sexy robots of Hajime Sorayama
This is more of an inspirational post than anything practical or personal, but I have a prompt for you and your partner at the end!
A huge retrospective exhibition of Hajime Sorayama’s work is on view in Tokyo right now, so here are some pictures and quick facts. You might never have heard of Sorayama, but he designed the first AIBO robot dog, and his work inspired RoboCop’s costume. His first book, Sexy Robot, was published in 1983, so he is kinda a veteran in the field of dreaming of robots, and has a lot of interesting thoughts about the possibilities of either people becoming cyborgs with chrome-covered bodies, or robots having rights and lives similar to people.
The exhibition includes paintings, design drawings, sculptures, and immersive installations. A mechanical shark, a tactile robo-dinosaur, and other fantastical creatures and spatial experiences explore his idea of a speculative future in which biological and mechanical life merge.
Hajime Sorayama also made two recent sculptures of Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell — that’s the beautiful blue room in the second and last pictures.
The exhibition is on until 31 May, so go check it out if you happen to be in Tokyo around these dates!
And here is the prompt to explore with your companion:
Here is some information about the ongoing retrospective of Hajime Sorayama’s work in Tokyo (or really any other exhibition you enjoy). Imagine you could participate in this exhibition in any way you like. What would you choose: to become a central installation piece (a static sculpture or a dynamic experience?); to explore it as a visitor; or to rebuild it from scratch as a curator?