Manga, the comic-book art form that dominates Japanese popular culture, is invading the United States - this time in the form of fine art sculpture. Japanese artist Kenji Yanobe offers a darkly humorous, manga-inspired vision of the future in his American debut show, Survival System Train and Other Sculptures, opening Wednesday at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Gardens Center for the Arts.
While much of his work is playful, Yanobe worries about the pervasive influence of comics in manga-obsessed Japanese society: "It's difficult for us to recognize what is reality and what is fiction. And this, I feel, is a bit dangerous - we need a balance." The need for balance is nowhere more evident than atop a gigantic pair of fluorescent-blue Godzilla legs: Yanobe's Foot Soldier(Godzilla), constructed of scavenged industrial materials, is an electrically powered interactive machine intended to be driven by the artist himself. Such works are drawn directly from the manga characters and toys that left a childhood impression on the Osaka-born Yanobe.
"Right now, manga comprises nearly 40 percent of all published books and magazines in Japan," says Frederik Schodt, author of two recent books on manga culture, and a guest speaker at the show's accompanying panel discussion at the Center for the Arts next week. "It's a huge, huge phenomenon, and in the US it's hard for people to grasp the scale of it because in our culture, comic books have been relegated to a cultural ghetto."
In addition to their manga aesthetic, Yanobe's works - protective tanks and safety suits - also suggest a whimsical solution to an apocalyptic future. "They're like personal mobile fallout shelters," says Renny Pritikin, curator of the show. Yanobe's piece E. E. Pod (Emergency Escape Pod), for example, is a coin-operated rescue capsule, lined with red velvet and absurdly equipped with candy bars and monkey wrenches. Instructions in both English and German give the E. E. Pod the appearance of being a fully functional option in time of dire need.
Yanobe's sculptures will be on display at the Center for the Arts through 1 June. The exhibit features a new piece - a caboose attachment for Yanobe's earlier Survival System Train - designed specifically for this show. The caboose is a refrigerator car stocked with fruit, vegetables, and blue frogs. Why blue frogs? "Because," says Yanobe with humorous certainty, "after the disaster, we have to eat."
