(Clockwise from top left) Singing robot Seamons from the Voice series and Fishbone Bow from the Naki series; Two models wearing the signature blue uniform of Maywa Denki carry Pachi-Moku (left) and Koi-beat mechanical rhythm box. (Photos: GT/Sun Shuangjie and courtesy of the museum)
"We brought all our works to exhibit here. If the venue fell down abruptly, all our creations would be destroyed," joked Japanese artist Nobumichi Tosa on Saturday afternoon at the opening ceremony of Nonsense Machine, the largest ever showcase of Tosa's art project Maywa Denki.
If the cute blue cat Doraemon from the namesake Japanese cartoon series has enchanted the world with its capacity to conjure magical creations, Maywa Denki serves as a parallel example for the real world.
Originally started in 1993 by Tosa and his elder brother Masamichi, Maywa Denki was named after their father's electric equipment factory which went bankrupt in 1979.
Under the name of Maywa Denki, the Tosa brothers created grotesque artworks and abnormal musical instruments, and even presented live concerts.
Masamichi quit the group in 2000, while Tosa has continued on his own, presenting concerts with a new band, which sees up to eight people onstage at any one time.
Wearing their signature light blue outfits that resemble the uniforms of electric equipment factory employees, Tosa and four of his band members presented their first concert in Shanghai on Saturday afternoon.
They wowed the audience of around 300 people with a funny, surprising and intriguing melodic rock show.
Switched on
Each song started with an order from Tosa, who wore a pair of black-framed glasses and looked like a geek.
On his command, a range of automatically playing instruments would start up. These included a guitar and a bass both in the shape of a rectangular thermometer; a small drum set contained in a suitcase-like box; a set of small installations that open and close like flowers and make marimba sounds while shining lights; and human-shaped instruments that each has two lung-like balloons that seem to breathe.
These were joined by the five men onstage, who played more kinds of instruments.
The concert was a crazy experience for the audience as well as for Tosa, who acted like a toy vendor throughout the show, introducing one after another of the Maywa Denki productions.
The 48-year-old presents about 10 performances each year around the world. Offstage, he becomes a serious and introverted man who constantly explores himself through philosophy and art. He said that the two different personas make him complete.
The Naki series was Tosa's starting point. He initiated it in 1990 when he was still a postgraduate student at University of Tsukuba.
Confused by the question "who am I?," Tosa chose to compare himself to a fish, which was inspired by childhood nightmares, while comparing the world to a small sea. As a result, he created 26 items, each representing a message about himself.
"The process is just like fishing. The fish (the idea) swimming in the sea (chaos in one's brain) is landed onto the real world with the fishing technique (reason) and fishing tackle (mechanical engineering skill)," reads an introduction to the series.
The Naki series also marked the beginning of Maywa Denki. Tosa said he chose to name the project after an electric device company due to the craze for electric devices in Japanese society, and such a name brought him closer to the general public.
And as a matter of fact, some of the creations in the Naki series have been spotted by real electric device companies, who later developed mass-manufactured products based on them.
Tosa told the Global Times that roughly 5 percent of his creations have become mass products, which has generated revenue together with his live performances and exhibitions to support himself and Maywa Denki. Besides that, he seldom sells his art.
The Shanghai exhibition showcases four major series of Maywa Denki. As well as the Naki series, there is the Tsukuba series, which features musical instruments driven by motors and electromagnets; the Voice series, which plays with the notions of functionality and the magic of music by creating mechanical structures shaped like humans and animals; and the Edelweiss series, in which Tosa ponders the biological essence of females and creates a fiction that leads to the birth of a new series of artistic installations.
Moreover, a wide range of mass-manufactured products inspired by Tosa's art is also on view.
Nonsense artist
Tosa names his creations "nonsense machines," because he doesn't think within the limits of common senses. For example, some of his musical instruments don't follow traditional scale intervals, and are just played by the performer based on his or her feelings.
"The most nonsense machine is me," said Tosa, who believes that inside everybody's brain there is nonsense, which is something that cannot be rationally or scientifically explained.
Tosa says that through art he touches upon the nonsense feelings inside himself, and if audience come to see the exhibition and walk out with tilted heads and ineffable feelings, then his dream has come true.
Date: Until March 13, 10 am to 6 pm (closed Mondays)
Venue: Ming Contemporary Art Museum 明当代美术馆
Address: 436 Yonghe Road East
永和东路436号
Admission: 80 yuan ($12.16)
Call 6445-1199 for details
