Takahiro Iwasaki is recognised as one of the leaders of Japan’s new generation of young artists. Paying great attention to technical perfection, visual presentation and philosophical content, Iwasaki creates intricately detailed models that reinterpret iconic historic buildings and contemporary cityscapes. His most important works focus on seven of Japan’s most sacred buildings, all of which are associated with reflections they cast in the water surrounding them. Playing with this striking visual relationship, Iwasaki constructs precise three-dimensional models that are exhibited suspended, in a way that combines the actual building with its illusionary reflection to create a single, complete form. This work, commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, is the latest in the artist’s Reflection Model series and is based on the sixth-century Shinto shrine of Itsukushima, on the tidal flats of Japan’s Inland Sea. The model has fifteen interlocking parts that when suspended create an illusion of weightlessness.
See this work on Level 3 at NGV International until 6 Apr 2015.