FROM THE STRANGER, OCTOBER 16TH, 2009.Bing Bang Boom: Oyama Han's MetaHuman Wreckage "Monuments"
...and opening tonight at the G. Gibson Gallery is the internationally acclaimed "Boom Pow" by Japanese sculptor Oyama Han. This is the fifth stop on the exhibit's global tour, one high-brow art circles are already proclaiming is the single most direct and emotionally evocative metahuman-focused installation in recent history. We've liked Oyama's work in previous years (remember her exhibit composed entirely of torn and re-glued pages of first edition Victorian romances?) but have to say we're less than enthused that she's tackling this tired theme. After Patrick Shanney's "Metas Among Us" at the MOMA last year, we're more than a little full up on our superhuman compatriots.
On the other hand, preview shots from the Manhattan showing have gotten our interests piqued. Oyama's taken salvaged wreckage from various good-vs.-evil battles fought by Japan's national metahuman team, the "Shichiseishi," and reformed it to recreate the locations of the battles at their simplest elements. She's calling her "monuments" a "forced look at the way the Seishi 'handle business,'" and though it's clearly aimed at her own country's metahuman population -- one known for producing not only the Shichiseishi, but the infamous Taka Harutami -- even our lowly interns can't help but feel a little uncomfortable at the exhibit's global implications. Doesn't the piece pictured on page 17 look a little like the Boeing Factory Boomerang saved a couple years ago?
The exhibit runs from October 17 to November 14...
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