‘Asphalt’ (2008)

It is hard to suppress the Star Wars allusions when looking at Masakatsu Sashie’s large-scale oil paintings. What appear to be terrestrial Death Stars—of a particularly Japanese empire—hover over Sashie’s post-apocalyptic wastelands and grim, overbuilt dystopias. Yet the synthetic orbs appear decidedly quotidian: they are amassed of everyday forms of Japanese architecture and technology, from unassuming wood fences and corrugated metal roofs to air conditioning condensers, vending machines and even smoke stacks. More after the jump.

‘Bazaar’ (2010)

‘Born to Boogie’ (2009)

Sashie’s orbs float eerily like the last vestiges of civilization, desperately clinging together in a landscape of destruction. Their compact compositions allude to Tokyo’s dense urban fabric, each piece holding its place like a Metabolist capsule. In ‘Born to Boogie,’ a sphere of audiovisual media players hodgepodged together with brick-and-mortar storefronts is seen suspended like a collaged disco ball over a blood red Hokusai wave. Other paintings depict dramatic topographies of burning cars and industrial waste.

Left: ‘Leaden Gray’ (2010); Right: ‘Utility’ (2010)

Sashie frequently paints a soulless skyline in the backdrop of his canvases. Agglomerations of skyscrapers and towers reminiscent of East Asian city business districts remain like skeletons of a metropolis that once held all the promise of progress. With a nihilistic tone, Sashie’s paintings reveal that these abandoned cities now hold nothing for the clustered, fragments of the surviving modern world. In fact, they may have precipitated its demise.

Left: ‘Monster’ (2009); Right: ‘Planet’ (2010)

‘Moon’ (2009)

[All images courtesy the artist, via Designboom]

by Kelly Chan

posted in Uncategorized

tagged Art, cities, city, Death Star, japan, Masakatsu Sashie, metabolism, Painting, Star Wars, tokyo, urbanism

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