concept_e

Contemporary Doll Artist
mican



  • Hitogata, human forms made from of old to be dwellings for the powers that abound in nature
  • Hitogata and humans alike bear the burden of death
  • I strive to create hitogata with my eyes focused on humans as they walk the space between life and death



Ball-jointed dolls

Glass eyes

  • Objects made to resemble the human form can be seen in civilizations and ethnic groups all over the world.
  • Originally, these objects appear to have carried strong magical or religious meanings, as they were used for such purposes as praying for good harvests, fertility, and the repose of the dead. As civilization developed, human-shaped objects came to be divided into categories such as idols, sculptures, and dolls, and a varied range of these objects were produced prior to the advent of the modern figurine.
  • Ball-jointed dolls are one such type of human-shaped object. These dolls originated in the early 20th century, when Hans Bellmer discovered articulated dolls made by the Durer School in the 16th century, and elevated this type of doll to an art.
  • Born in Poland in 1902, Bellmer created dolls as “anagrams”, various combinations of limbs and bodies which he linked together with ball-joints. These dolls were then used to produce fetish photography. This artwork gained widespread attention after being promoted by André Breton, author of the Surrealist Manifesto.
  • bellmer.jpgBellmer's ball-jointed doll photo
  • Bellmer’s ball-jointed dolls were introduced to Japan in the 1960s by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa. This led to the appearance of a number of artists who used ball-jointed dolls as forms of artistic expression. Many of these artists opened doll-making schools, allowing this artistic style to be handed down to a new generation of artists, who continue to use dolls to search for their own varied means of expression. It can be argued that ball-jointed dolls are now becoming a uniquely Japanese art form.
  • I first learned about such dolls in 2006, when I took part in a doll-making class. Bellmer took ball-joints as an expression of fetishism, but I take the kinetic nature of movement through ball-joints to express a symbol of life (a signe).
  • My inspiration for this is drawn from Tai Chi. Tai Chi involves visualizing the joints as spheres and engaging in repeated circular movement to reach a state where heaven and earth are connected. I feel this approach suits me better than the one linked to fetishism.
  • For the future, I aim to keep my eyes fixed on the "human being" while continuing to create "human forms."
  • 2012.6