Bunpei Kado
- Introduction of Artist
- Bunpei Kado (b. 1978) graduated from Musashino Art University, majoring in Metal Craft within the Department of Industrial, Interior and Craft Design, and has since pursued his career primarily in Japan as a contemporary sculptor. He collects ordinary, everyday objects, combining and transforming them to present fresh perspectives on the concept of home.
Central to Kado's practice is the sculptural representation of familiar objects juxtaposed with disparate elements or structurally reconfigured. Objects such as barrels, tanks, drawers, chairs, and household furniture—typically functional in their usual contexts—undergo a reconfiguration of their semantic implications through artistic recombination and relocation. Crucially, Kado's interest lies not merely in replicating outward appearances but in emphasizing or destabilizing the semiotic attributes of these objects.
When processing diverse media such as metals and wood, Kado intentionally highlights or obscures their physical characteristics. By artificially oxidizing metal surfaces or concealing wood joints, he creates an intentional sense of temporality and wear, producing paradoxical objects that resemble readymades yet remain distinctly crafted. His works sit at the intersection of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary sculptural conceptualism.
One of his notable works, "Giraffe," embodies a hybrid form between industrial structures and living organisms. Employing iron columns and wooden blocks, it visually evokes the silhouette of a decorative giraffe, yet structurally presents a mechanical, inorganic composition. By merging the verticality of infrastructure with animalistic form, Kado dismantles fixed representational conventions, proposing a new sculptural order. Here, "Giraffe" becomes less symbolic and more structural, physically embodying the tension between nature and machinery, organic and inorganic, creature and architecture.
This tension similarly emerges in Kado’s "house" series. The artist reduces the notion of "home" from physical dwelling space to sculptural units, serving as key elements in experimental combinations. Sculptures depicting houses placed on skateboards, embedded within drums, or suspended from metal towers reflect Kado’s exploration of the concept of "foundation." His experiments revolve around the absence, transformation, and inversion of foundations, overturning conventional perceptions of spatial stability and structural hierarchy. In these works, the "house" ceases to symbolize dwelling or permanence, becoming instead an incomplete sculptural unit or relational structure.
"Floating Island" is an extension of Kado’s approach, wherein "floating" becomes both a physical concept and sculptural condition. Inspired by climbing walls, he arranges sculptural units such as houses, trees, and everyday tools atop structures modeled after climbing holds, examining relationships among gravity, structure, and surface. The placement of houses on protruding structures visualizes the absence of ground or "foundationlessness," amplifying the sculptural conditions of instability and temporariness.
Occasionally, Kado's houses adopt geometric forms juxtaposed with organic elements (sprouts, branches, animal shapes). This juxtaposition highlights hybridity between organisms and mechanical structures, introducing biological temporality into the sculpture. When structural forms appear animated, or conversely, organic forms follow architectural order, his sculptures can be interpreted as ecological objects or environmental structures. Yet, they avoid explicit discourses, instead constructing autonomous sculptural systems through semiotic conflict and sculptural transgression.
Kado’s works outwardly reflect everyday environments but internally undergo rigorous dismantling and reassembling of sculptural orders and structural systems. Each sculptural unit derives meaning through tension with adjacent structures, functioning not merely as visual entertainment but as sculptural avant-garde. Thus, his practice transcends visual play or iconic symbolism, establishing itself as structural experimentation.
In summary, Bunpei Kado's work transforms meanings and positions of objects through sculptural deconstruction and structural juxtaposition, redefining relationships between everyday objects and sculptural systems. His practice constitutes experimental inquiry into the boundaries between functionality, materiality, symbolism, and sculptural form, thereby materially and structurally expanding contemporary sculpture.
Related ArtworksVIEW ALL
- Metagallery LaLuna
- CEO : Kim Jung Eun
- Business Registration No : 178-88-02556
- Registration Number of E-commerce : 2022-Seoul Gangdong-0494
- Email : info@metagallerylaluna.com
Copyright (c) Meta Gallery-Laluna.All rights Reserved.
Contact
+82-02-442-9955
Address 39, Sangil-ro 6-gil, Gangdong-gu, Seoul 05288, Korea
