Toshihiko Mitsuya (b. 1979, Japan) lives and works in Berlin, he received a BFA in sculpture at Seian University of Art and Design in 2004.
The first part of his current series consists of 300 small sculptures made from normal kitchen aluminum foil. As a child, he frequently recreated the shapes he observed in his imagination, often incorporating them into the figures he created with the foil. The material proved optimal for the creation of shapes that could be transformed. The techniques he developed for creating fine shapes that retain their malleability are still employed in his current work.
In his teens, he experienced a significant earthquake, which caused the ground to fracture in front of his house. This event led him to question the stability of the world around him. Such occurrences are not uncommon in Japan, where typhoons and earthquakes are frequent.
Traditional Japanese architecture is constructed using wood and paper without the use of nails. This wooden architecture is susceptible to the forces of nature but is often not entirely destroyed. In contrast to modern Japan, where people attempt to control nature, the people of old Japan lived in harmony with nature. These experiences influenced the current fragility of Mitsuya’s artworks. He became interested in soft sculpture and enrolled in the textile class at Seian University of Art and Design, later transferring to the sculpture class.
After he came to Berlin, he collaborated with the architecture duo “June14 Meyer Grohbrügge & Chermayeff”, creating huge, minimalist structures using aluminum foil. This was an investigation into the potential for creating large structures with extremely thin materials that appear to defy the laws of physics. This too influenced the fragility of Mitsuya’s current work.
After testing foils durability in various forms of construction, Mitsuya started to create a life-sized standing statue made from special wide sheets of aluminium foil. The motifs of each work are based on symbols, decorations and crafts that have lost their original meanings thus depicting the tenuous nature of human civilization and illustrating how easily it can be lost.
Mitsuya has also created a series of flat works from scratched, mirror-polished stainless steel, produced by using an angle grinder. The works are comprised of several layers, which give the impression of a kind of hologram or hallucination. The work’s appearance is contingent upon the viewer’s perspective, varying in appearance and perceived stability. The act of viewing prompts the viewer to seek out images within the work, leading them to be drawn to motifs that may be connected to their own personal memories.
These statues and other flat works were selected for the international group show ”XXIII.ROHKUNSTBAU 2017” held every year in Brandenburg, Germany in an old, abandoned castle. The exhibited full-scale equestrian statues were all made with a special aluminum foil which is 1 meter wide and 0.2 mm thick. Through these sculptures, the full potential of the foil’s plasticity and reflective surface was revealed both in the armor’s form, and in delicate details, such as feathers and hair that adorned the sculptures, illustrating the soft properties of the material.
Mitsuya’s artworks, made from aluminium foil, reflect the surrounding environment, they melt into space and the entities become lost in the light. They move back and forth between the real and the virtual, making the experience of the objects feel uncertain.
The viewer encounters Mitsuya’s work as a mirage that projects a real landscape without substance, an illusion that appears abruptly in front of the viewer creating a dialogue with a ghostly vision.
In 2015, in collaboration with the architectural practice “June14 Meyer Grohbrügge & Chermayeff”, Mitsuya initiated his most recent significant project entitled “The aluminum garden - structural studies of plants”. This involved the creation of numerous plants crafted from the same aluminium material used in previous sculptures. And the equally spaced plants with the transparent chairs by June14 transformed the exhibition space into an otherworldly garden. The work was meticulously crafted through a unique technique of cutting and folding aluminium foil into intricate representations of various plants. Mitsuya exploits the malleability and reflective surface of aluminium foil to create plants that are fine and supple, while remaining sturdy. Furthermore, the plants are manipulated to convey a sense of freshness, as if they were radiant with dew under the morning sunlight and swaying gently in the breeze. The garden is not static in its composition, Mitsuya has transformed a material produced in a factory into one that resembles an earthly organism.
Additionally, in 2022, Mitsuya was selected as one of the participating artists in the Lindau Biennale with the same work. Prior to this, Mitsuya had only created his aluminium gardens for indoor use. However, with the onset of the pandemic, he began placing his plants outdoors with new mirror-polished aluminium foil. The direct influence of nature represents an extremely exciting further development in this series of works. The finished sculptures retain the same degree of fragility as the plants from which they are derived. The sculptures are both durable and flexible. Mitsuya created a new garden with sufficient strength to withstand outdoor conditions while maintaining the fragility and softness of each plant. The sculptures are subjected to the elements, including precipitation and wind, and are inhabited by a multitude of insects. He monitors the process. The garden requires some degree of maintenance, including the cutting of the grass. For instance, consider the case of a strong wind that alters the trajectory of a leaf on a plant. If the leaf is fixed in a direction contrary to the wind, it may be damaged by the wind. Mitsuya must identify a solution that allows him to repair the damage while aligning himself with the natural forces at work.
His work represents an ongoing investigation into the potential for coexistence between his garden and the natural environment.
2024