Armored Form (Yorou-katachi) No. 9

Toki Kenji Japanese

Not on view

Toki Kenji’s art pushes the boundaries of the lacquer medium. He experiments with bodies developed with computer-aided design or made of carbon fiber, which he covers with traditionally applied lacquer (urushi), bringing together modern digital technology and time-honored craftsmanship. For this work he used a commercial plastic model of Gundam, a giant robot-like “mobile suit” featured in a science fiction series, which consists of 140 parts. The artist carefully applied lacquer to each part, using red lacquer topped with a transparent layer (shudame-nuri) on the armor section to mimic the look of traditional Japanese armor.

Armored Form (Yorou-katachi) No. 9, Toki Kenji (Japanese, born 1969), Plastic and lacquer, Japan

Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.