Kawaguchi Yoichiro is a Japanese computer graphics artist, and university professor at the University of Tokyo. Yoichiro spent his childhood in Kagoshima Prefecture, an island home to Japan’s largest aerospace research and space launching center. He spent his childhood collecting insects and plants in the woods and fantasizing about space adventures. These perhaps serve as his inspiration for his CGI works later in his life.
Yoichiro’s works are a combination of what could happen if the outer space and biology, in their extremes, tell a story.
We see out of this world creatures that resemble gigantic earthworms whose tentacles seem to be sucking the life out of this earth, or a massive white coral turning and drifting on the surface of the sea as if dancing in the rhythm of the music. We also see alien-like creatures in their steel-like exoskeleton awaiting impact by a sea of beads. We also see a creature that resembles a centipede that entangles and disentangles from its own legs. We also see shapes that resemble the splitting of cells, as if demonstrating the origin of life.
His CGI works are accompanied by ethereal music which gives them a more haunting effect to the viewers.
Yoichiro’s earlier works are available on Youtube: Embryo (1988), Cytolon (2002), Gigalopolis (1995), Mutation (1992)
***Photos were taken with permission from the museum staff. The images below are part of computer graphic animations.
Sculptures and drawings by the artist were also included in the exhibit.
You can even grab a marker and color the alien-like characters on the wall!
