Seing Manekineko’s post about Kenji Yanobe, I couldn’t resist the urge to write something about the artist humourous obsession with destruction and survival.

He creates manga and sci-fi inspired sculptures from scavenged machinery and industrial materials. Many of then are intended to protect users (even dogs!) from unnamed potential threats and help them navigate a disintegrating future. Yellow Suit, for example, is a full body of armor that shields against the coming of radioactivity.

Yanobe incorporates Geiger counters for measuring radiation and cosmic rays into his fantastic inventions, reminding us of the threatening world we inhabit.

Sometimes Yanobe’s objects are used for conquest: Foot Soldier (Godzilla) was designed to crush and annihilate one’s enemies, as the original Godzilla did to Tokyo.

Other pieces promote inner well-being. Inside the Tanker Machine, you can float in physiological salt solution which is as warm as the human body and makes you feel like you are back in your mother’s womb. Your sense of touch, eyesight, and hearing are lost.

Like the best science fiction, the work’s implausibility only accentuates formidable themes beneath the surface.

The obvious link would be that Kenji’s art is a reaction to the atomic bombings of Japan. But Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened long before the artist was born. Although he’s seen the sites when he was a kid, Kenji is interested mainly in the present and future: “I am just making things for what I need now and for my family.”