GR8: Protective Art Self-proclaimed messiah Shoko Asahara spreads his message with sarin gas through the Tokyo subways frying people's nasal passages, a Japanese atomic plant has a meltdown giving people skin like Gamera, and Miyazaki, an animation otaku, watches too much Ranma and kills and eats little kids. These are some sample types of headlines that scare the shit out of artist and sculptor Kenji Yanobe. His work is a partial reaction to events like these which are happening to the "otaku generation" -- kids who watched robot shows, animation, and read comics. Somehow, being invited to speak on a panel discussion on Giant Robots and manga culture at the San Francisco Yerba Buena Gardens Museum along with Fred Schott, the manga knowledge king, and Kenji Yanobe, artist, I was dwarfed. It turned out that Kenji had been in San Francisco for a week or so building new projects for this and his following exhibit in Switzerland. Having only read about Kenji's work, I had yet to see it.
YANOBE KENJI ART WORKS /// ヤノベケンジ アートワークス Kenji Yanobe - Artists - Online Gallery of Japanese Contemporary Art Azito Born in 1965 in Osaka, Kenji Yanobe attended Kyoto City University of Arts and received a Master of Arts degree in 1991. Since the early 1990s, Yanobe has been incorporating the theme of survival in present-day society into his work, creating numerous large-scale mechanical sculptural works that may be attached to one’s body or ridden and controlled. With the dawning of the 21st century, Yanobe shifted to the theme of revival, and in 2003, he held the exhibition Megalomania, the culmination of his work up to that time, at The National Museum of Art, Osaka (on the site of Osaka Expo ‘70 world’s fair). In 2004, he created The City of Children Project during a six-month residency at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Education Official Artist W