Dreams and Memories Form and Dissipate in Tomohiro Inaba’s Delicate Iron Sculptures

an iron sculpture of a young girl with a hood, touching foreheads with a large horse, which gradually fades into lines

“Good night no.2” (2020), iron, urethane paint, and acrylic paint, 144 x 53 x 29 centimeters. All images © Tomohiro Inaba, shared with permission

In Tomohiro Inaba’s intimate metal sculptures, majestic animals and gentle humans are the stuff of dreams and fairytales. As if scribbled energetically in 3D, delicate lines of iron transition the solid forms of deer, foxes, or sheep into thin air—what Inaba calls the “gradient to blank.” Yet this emptiness takes on a life of its own, spinning a sense of mystery and inviting the viewer to question what forces might be causing it or where the boundary lies between presence and absence.

Woodland creatures provide the basis for many of Inaba’s compositions, referencing folk tales, the human connection to nature, and a sense of wonder. A cosmic fox sprints in “Hearing footsteps left by a star,” for example, while a young woman and an ethereal horse commune in “Good night no. 2.” The artist’s current solo exhibition, A Story That You See at Yukiko Mizutani Gallery, draws special attention to the margins between what feels real or solid and what may only be a figment of our imagination or a dream half-remembered.

A Story That You See continues through August 31 in Tokyo, and Inaba’s work will be part of a two-person show at Art Range in Onfleur, France, beginning in October. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

a metal abstract sculpture of a figure riding a giant deer with its center missing and tendrils leading toward the sky as if it is disintegrating upward

Installation view of ‘A Story That You See,’ Yukiko Mizutani Gallery, Tokyo

an abstract sculpture of a fox with its rear legs missing and tendrils spiraling up toward the sky as if it is disintegrating upward

“Hearing footsteps left by a star” (2021), iron, urethane paint, and acrylic paint, 96 x 100 x 40 centimeters

a sculpture of a seated sheep with its center turning into tendrils leading toward the sky as if it is disintegrating upward

“Stars Uncounted no.12” (2015), iron, urethane paint, and acrylic paint, 58 x 24 x 44 centimeters

an abstract sculpture of a deer with its center missing and tendrils leading down the sky as if it is disintegrating upward

“Stars that once had names no.1” (2019), iron, urethane paint, and acrylic paint, 253 x 143 x 85 centimeters

a metal sculpture of a young figure wearing an abstract wolf head

“Night Stranger” (2015), iron and urethane paint, 67 x 33 x 22 centimeters

a sculpture of a deer skull on a prism with half its head missing and tendrils leading down the sky as if it is disintegrating upward

“Vessel of Memory no.4” (2019), iron, urethane paint, and acrylic paint, 278 x 45 x 45 centimeters

“Repeating World no.3” (2018), iron, urethane paint, and acrylic paint, 166 x 35 x 107 centimeters

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