How technology distorts nature: Kohei Nawa’s art for the information age – so tactile you want to feel it

Japanese artist’s stuffed animals encrusted in glass balls are a mesmerising commentary on society’s obsession with viewing the world in pixelated form

On display in his first solo Hong Kong show, the works and others, such as his throne made from blades, explore the contrasts between nature and artificiality

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Kohei Nawa at his Recent Works exhibition at Pace Gallery, in Central, Hong Kong. “My ‘PixCell’ artworks explore humanity – the human sensibility – and how it is developed by technology,” the 43-year-odl Japanese artist says. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 6:00pm, 24 Jul 2019Updated: 6:31pm, 24 Jul 2019

It takes some restraint not to reach out and touch the art when walking through a Kohei Nawa exhibition. From the stuffed animals covered in glass bubbles in his “PixCell” series to the polished, futuristic blades of Throne, and the voluptuous objects coated in bedazzled grains from his “Particle” series, these sculptures have tactile qualities that pique one’s curiosity.

Placed under spotlights inside an art gallery, these glittering pieces become hyper-vivid.

“Recent Works”, the 43-year-old Japanese artist’s first solo show in Hong Kong, examines the relationship between nature and artificiality.

The most visually arresting piece in the exhibition at Pace Gallery in the city’s Central district is one of Nawa’s career-defining concepts: a stuffed deer covered in thousands of clear glass balls of different sizes, which create the impression that the two-metre-tall animal is coated entirely in suds or dew. The light refracted from each ball distorts the creature, giving only an impression of what it looks like beneath its fluid exterior.

A stuffed deer encrusted in glass bubbles from Kohei Nawa's “Pixcell” series on show at his Recent Works exhibition at Pace Gallery in Central, Hong Kong. The Japanese artists says the series is his take on society’s obsession with viewing the world in pixelated form through smartphones, digital cameras and online. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Deer have mythological and cultural significance in Japan, but Nawa selected them as a medium for practical reasons: they are more abundant than other stuffed animals on auction websites.