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Rocking Mammoth

YANOBE Kenji

2005

Born in 1965, Kenji Yanobe grew up in Japan's era of high-level economic growth and developed an awareness of the world while surrounded by manga, TV anime, and SF movies. His experience of this teen subculture is strongly reflected in his work. The sculptural works suggestive of giant plastic models he exhibited in his early career can be worn or else mounted and operated, and are simultaneously "survival machines" for future survival on the earth. The event that deeply changed Yanobe's awareness as such was his visit to Chernobyl in 1997. Entering the contaminated region wearing a radiation-proof suit of his own creation, the "ATOM SUIT", he encountered there the scene of local residents trying to restart their lives in the ruins of the city. Since then, Yanobe has embraced a more positive vision of life. His creative theme has shifted from his own "survival" to a "revival" aimed at working with others to create a better way of living. In 2004, he launched his "Mammoth Project" for the Aichi Expo, a project of grand scale that involved creating a mammoth from discarded industrial materials, burying it in Siberia, and digging it up in the future. That project was never realized, but young people around him held such enthusiasm for the project, he followed it with "ROCKING MAMMOTH". While humorous in appearance, this mammoth created from a dismantled car is yet a symbol of the 20th century, when our car society polluted the air with gas emissions and ultimately drove itself into a corner. Yanobe's actions, which thus transcend the existing framework of art, are harshly critical of our times and society and continually prod us to recognize how tardy we are in our views of reality.