Misako Inaoka Deer Family
Misako Inaoka Green-pin Bird, 2006 motion sensor, plastic, resin, foam, pins and paint7" x 8" x 11"
Misako Inaoka Collage 4
Misako Inaoka Gemini, 2007 motion sensor, sound, artificial plants, toys, air bursh4" x 5" x 3" each
Bio
Misako Inaoka is a Japanese artist, now working and residing in San Francisco, CA. She works in a range of media from drawing to installation and sculptures and her work references Darwinian theory and evolutionary causality. Her miniature sculptures of "invented" organisms combine the elements of artificial and natural contextually, through subject, and physically, through scale. Inaoka focuses on the miniature, she says, in hopes of "encouraging us all to stop and take a closer look at the world around us." (MisakoInaoka) Inaoka's work, being largely miniature and subject-focused, also adopts an element of kitsch and the relationship it shares within the discussion of artificial and natural. For example, Inaoka created mechanical bird-like sculptures, which visually function within a particularly kitsch atmosphere, and when approached, sometimes animate and emit sounds. The animation of these "objects" represents the artist adding the functionality of a "live" object, or one simulating something "live" in the natural world.
Relates
My work relates to Inaoka's conceptually and visually, in certain ways. My work is largely inspired by scientific and genetic causality and the relationship between natural and artificial, whether this be based genetically, or allegorically. Visually, Inaoka's work portrays subjects dismembered, however, strangely correct, enhancing the sense of confusion between what "is" and what "isn't." My work, as well, strives to isolate the balance of the distortion of an image and the implications of the distortion, representing an implied "truth". I am very interested in the visual functionality of Inaoka's work in relation to object fetishism and kitsch culture. I think this element could possibly be the softening element my work could use to prevent it from becoming too sterile or overly scientific. Maybe.
Quotations
"Still, she does all this with a certain lightness and humor, turning the animals from unfortunate science experiments into endearing and yet damaged creatures you want to take home and nurture. The fact that some are allowed to still move and sing only increases the fascination and humor inherent in these little oddities."
Warner, Tonya. "Misako Inaoka: The Origin Of Species." PercolatorMagazine.com Accessed 31 Oct. 2010. <>
"In Guided Growth, Misako Inaoka revamps Johansson Projects into a zoological garden run wild, existing in a strange parallel world that we are perhaps too familiar with. Inaoka's work echoes the alchemy of food processing by cross-breeding high art and toys, flirting with the familiarity of kitsch. Ceramic fawns with surveillance cameras for heads and a moose with ears-turned-bicycle-handlebars frolic in a wonderland impossibly sweet with an unsettling aftertaste. Inaoka's serious play addresses issues of cloning, bioengineering, alternative energy in pint-sized figurines suited for text books or toy chests."
Johansson Projects. "Johansson Projects presents Guided Growth featuring Misako Inaoka" Rhizome: Announcements. Accessed 31 Oct 2010. <>
“To arouse notions of existence and coexistence, I construct environments that are rooted in the reality of vanishing species and mutating nature. Using minuscule sculptures and interactive site-specific installations created out of items such as mechanical birds, plastic plants and branches, forcing viewers to focus on small details and to take a closer look at their surroundings.”
Misako Inaoka. "Misako Inaoka Bio." The S & R Foundation. Accessed 31 Oct. 2010. <>
Interview
(Not very in-depth, but the only one available.)
http://sfist.com/2008/01/30/interview_misak.php
Gallery
Johansson Projects, Oakland, CA
http://johanssonprojects.com/default.htm
Website
http://www.misakoinaoka.com/
(Not very in-depth, but the only one available.)
http://sfist.com/2008/01/30/interview_misak.php
Gallery
Johansson Projects, Oakland, CA
http://johanssonprojects.com/default.htm
Website
http://www.misakoinaoka.com/
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