Japanese artist Takahiro Iwasaki can turn the foul hair clogging your drain into an intricate sculpture. In the past, Iwasaki has turned rolls of electrical tape into topographical maps, and morphed beach towels and dust into models of Coney Island. But for his most recent exhibition Out of Disorder that debuted at the Kawasaki City Museum this past fall, the sculptor re-imagined industrial landscapes using hair, cloth fiber, and dust—dry, listless material that fits the essence of a decrepit power plant.
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The sooty and rather bleak mini-sculptures are an interesting parallel to their real life counterparts, as the cold, melancholic powerplants (a la Fukushima) and the dead human hair provide a fascinating complement to one another. The artist was inspired by the land razed by WWII air raids, and he used satellite images from Google Earth as his source material. Iwasaki explained that the project strived to "shake the sense of space from everyday products and series of 'reflection models,'" as well as provide an interesting manipulation of historical architecture. There is definitely pastness embedded in both the fragile follicles and the nod to Japanese industrial landscapes that have since been abandoned or leveled.The work is no longer on display, but see Kawaski City Museum's website for more about the artist. And see some images of Out of Disorder below:
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