Meet Kohei Nawa Born in 1975 and currently based in Kyoto.
He is director of 'SANDWICH,' a creative platform for production established in 2009 in Fushimi, Kyoto.
Nawa's prolific career is as renowned as it is distinct. The scale of his work ranges from large public art installations (some have taken up to three years to complete) to museum and gallery exhibitions.
He works in a many different media to bring his visions into the real world where we get a wonderful glimpse inside of his head as we view his art for ourselves.
The following are some of my favorite projects of his, accompanied with notation from the artist himself in regards to each one.
Foam -
"Small bubbles (cells) continue to form on the surface of a gently lapsing liquid. They accumulate to form an autonomous structure comprised of foam. Each bubble cannot escape the cycle of birth and destruction, which is not unlike the way our cells operate as they metabolize and circulate."
Manifold -
"Manifold" is a massive sculpture created by suspending spheres in space and performing multiple simulations of gravity’s effect on them. The piece is based on “‘information, matter, and energy”; should even one of these lose balance, our society will face an enormous threat.
Biota -
The concept of this work is the "new forms of creatures emerging from physical chaos."
This piece is a three fold expression of Inujima island’s mystical powers, ancient sacred presence, and ongoing creation of new life.
Pixcell -
Once images of a particular object collected through the computer screen identifies itself as a suitable motif, the physical object is acquired through the internet and encapsulated in a layer of spheric cells. This process homogenizes the surface texture and depth perception for each piece. Although various in size, each sphere allows one to simultaneously "see" different details within it. The result is a visual experience with a certain repetitive quality and a warped sense of depth.
* PixCell: Pixel (picture element) + Cell [“PixCell ” is a term coined by Nawa.]
Trans -
TRANS works are created by applying a variety of mode effects to the surface of a 3D scanned motif. The finished model of cubic surface with fluidity expresses the trace of existing motifs as if witnessing forms of another side, parallel to this world.
