Essay About PixCell Deer

by the artist to create the internal form to which the resin and clear crystal has been applied to cover the entire outer surface. This procedure divides the sculpture skin into many cells, a variety of image materials and cells.

The artist used the real deer to represent the Japanese culture. The deer is considered sacred among the Japanese traditions. Prehistoric scripts called Shika Mandala employ deer as the principal animate creature of worship. In fact, many of the Japanese early arts were based on the deer, during Edo era artists at Rinpa School usually portrayed deer as a friend of early sages and also as beings with favorable or poetic connotations.

You may be astonished by the anchorite appearance that the self-supporting deer statue presents. It is placed, inside Metropolitan Art Museum, enclosed in olden Japanese shades that are covered in ordinary imagery. Pixcell Deer is a unique structure producing a calm, light silvery and warm, golden area appearance. Nonetheless, its magnetic fascination rapidly ceases the moment you realize what lays underneath its bubble enclosed coating.

A deer, one time alive, feeling and breathing, is now frozen, stuffed, and still. At a distance, the stag usually misleads onlookers into accepting that it is just a simple ordinary sculpture, a nonliving piece that was developed from zero into a sculpture. The realization that below the structure is, in fact, a preserved carcass will cause disturbance and repulse to the viewer.

Pixel designer, Mr. Nawa is part of a modern group of artists that their efforts are aiding to bring an extra nuanced vision of Japan art and cultural beliefs abroad, one that goes above the racial stereotypes of people

around the world. Mr. Nawa admits to having little interest in any genre. About two years ago, he took part in a group presentation at the Japan Society Gallery in New York. This was viewed to be a rebellion of Japan’s culture of cute.

According to Nawa, those periods are gone with time. (Definitely, there was a spell when artists profited from, stereotyping Japanese art in their work) he said. He further went on to stated that the current generation does not feel it’s necessary to associate with or attempt to represent, Japan in their work.

However, it is from Mr. Nawa’s combining of 3-D statues, traditional technique, and nearly industrial scale creation that he displays a view of what defines the modern Asia: an adoration of the latest technology, matching with a profound admiration for the potentials of manufacturing. Mr. Nawa worked for around three years to create (Manifold) a bulky thirteen meter and aluminum monstrosity of pipes and spheres of two hundred different parts .These parts were sliced, fused, cast and joined in workshops in Japan and other Asian countries like China.

While working on the (Cell) series Nawa confronted differences between reality and perception. By buying taxidermied creatures and several items (from emus to dice) over the internet, Nawa was then forced to merge what was obtained to be pixel- founded copy with the results of cell founded item.  Traditionally in Japan deer’s were considered to be envoys for the gods according to Shinto beliefs. Nawa redesigned the early Kasuga Mandala to produce his own indication of trickery, which showed the movement from physical truth in favorer of pictures.

His concentration on the relationships between observation

and actuality, or what could be seen to be an illusion, motivates threatening spirits. The outermost sheet of gears, the covering, is the utmost attractive part of the creation. However, it physically and plainly obstructs what lies underneath. A particular bead, same dimension as a psychic’s crystal ball, resides in the drop of the deer’s backbone.

Being the biggest, it is makes pairing it easy, but it has produced preposterous imageries from the inside. One’s own changing reflection blends with the distorted skin texture of the sculpture into a whirlpool of light and shade. The artificial crystal eyesight of the bloated animal are almost the same level as the human; a dark and intense glare hangs past the evolving symmetry divide. Reflections courses an observer to both views at the same time be viewed, but this frequently leads to overlooking the difference between what exists and what can be perceived.

Knowing that you are watching while being watched, forces you to reconsider the affiliation that was developing between these two pieces of art, the object and oneself. This creature that lived and matured then killed, bloated and vended, still an animal? Sure not. Currently this creature exists just as a picture pixels completed with light and shade formed by its fresh, manufactured skin. The living wildlife was transformed into an image on internet, created into a statue, and finally re-erected as a high-tech physical-image. Nawa’s application of Pixcell beads to develop everything, both living and dead, brings a feeling of neutrality that brings doubt in one’s mind.

Inference by the western civilization brought a major change in the Japanese culture and beliefs. Schools and mass media facilitated the

fast spread of modernization I japan. Translation of scientific terminologies from the west into Japanese altered the meaning during translation, and the changed wards were further spread to other Asian countries like China and South Korea. The western influences on Japanese cultural practices are in evidence in arts, literature, music, science and recreation.

Western songs are normally readily available as compared to Japanese traditional songs in various public sceneries. Although Christianity in japan is not widely spread as in the western countries, several christen holidays like Easter and Christmas are observed across the country, almost as a traditional occasion. The wearing of European and American dresses amongst the Japanese has currently taken the place of traditional clothing's (kimono), although ladies can put on official kimonos when attending festivities, and equally men and women can wear unofficial styles for house attire.

The designs and construction of houses have also changed significantly by the acquisition of architectural practices and functionalities from the Western countries. In shape, in pigment, and in materials that are meant for building, several contemporary Japanese structures are considerably dissimilar from the ancient ones; their shapes are modernistic, use several colors, and they are currently being made from cement concrete.

The double influences of Eastern and Western culture have helped construct a modern Japanese culture that offers accustomed features to the Western society .nevertheless; it contains a strong and distinguishing ancient traditional aesthetic. This is evident, for instance, in the elaborate features, reduction, and perceptions of subtleness that have changed introduction of visual art methods. This aesthetic can be captured best in the Japanese notion of shibui.

Other than PixCell Deer, The Kasuga Deer Mandala has also defined

Japanese art and culture. It was created in the 15th century during Muromachi period. In this image piece, a sakaki (holy tree) is located behind the divine white deer. All the four divinities of Both Kasuga Temple and the Kasuga Wakamiya Temple are seen as Buddhas is stationed on the branches of the holy tree. Twisting around the branches is Fuji (wisteria), it is a type of flower that is symbolic to the temple and the Japanese Fujiwara tribe.

You can observe the scenarios surrounding the temple at the lower end of the image; here the deer frisk in the field, observing the upper part, Mt. Mikasa can be seen among the kasungae hills in a conical form .In several ranges of Japan Shinto worshipers, conical mountains are regarded as sacred divinities' places. Among the most classical case is Mt. Miwa, situated in the south end of Nara Basin, it is regarded as a symbol of adoration of Ômiwa Temple. This painting portrays the landscape features in Nara were put together to show the origin of the faith.

Traditionally among the Japanese, the deer is considered to be a holy massager of the idols and hence protected. It is considered that the idol Takemikazuchi no Mikoto arrived at kasunga on the deer back. Up to this day, in the protected Prehistoric sites the deer are allowed to graze freely. This belief influences most of the work of art in japan to concentrate around the deer. Its sacred symbolism among the Japanese culture was adored very much. Because of the general beliefs about the deer, the deer symbolize the presence of the holy being in the painting.

The Kasuga

Deer Mandala portrays the ancient Japanese culture and beliefs using purely Japanese material in its creation. There is no modern culture portrayed in the image. This could be because it was produced in the ancient time when stereotyping of art was still rampant in japan and many places around the world.at this time, western civilization was mostly concentrated I Europe and had not spread to japan or any another far east countries.

However, pixcell deer incorporate both the modern and the ancient Japanese culture to clear a magnificent piece of work. The artist is not limited ancient Japanese materials only; in fact, he believes that the time when Japanese art was limited to only Japanese culture and beliefs is long gone. Modern material like the crystals has been used to cover the deer sculpture. He also uses the internet to search for the beads that were used in the creation of the sculpture.

In both places, a deer is used to create a piece of art. The deer was so common in the ancient Japanese culture. They have been protected for being the blessed envoys of the spirits and similarly a reminder of the Sarnath Deer Park, the location of the Buddha's original sermon. It is believed that the god (Takemikazuchi no Mikoto) arrived at Kasuga on a deer. In the picture, the god is symbolized by a branch of evergreen Sakaki poised on the deer's saddle. The pixecll deer uses different crystals to portray the image of balance.

Each crystal ball takes its position on the skin of the sculpture with non-hanging about of balance. In particular, a single bead resides in the drop of the deer’s

backbone. The sculpture too balances on its own, its free standing and does not show any signs of falling. Although pixcell uses the actual deer in its creation and Kasuga Deer Mandala use an image of a deer. They both represent the ancient Japanese culture that is so common with the association with the deer.

Kasuga Deer Mandala is Pixel is a painting that hangs on the wall and can only be viewed in two dimensions. The content in the image is usually read vertically from the bottom heading upwards. The vertical arrangement of objects is so synonymous with Japanese ancient culture.

This quality can further be seen in the upward nature of the pixcell sculptures .It is a three-dimensional sculpture that stands upright in the gallery, vertically placed with the crystals hanging on the skin. The fact that it was placed vertically is not just to enable you to view from a different direction but also to symbolize the Japanese cultural beliefs’. Japan’s culture is synonymous with the vertical arrangements, ranging from written words to work or art they are all read or arranged in a vertical manner.

At first encounter, the Kasuga Deer Mandala will be viewed to be just a normal image of a deer, with other features on the background, but once you go deeper to start analyzing the image, it will bring some feeling of disturbance to the viewers, when they realize that image is not just an ordinary image but has an inner deeper meaning. Pixcell deer too has some deception of its own. The sculpture could be perceived to be just like any other free standing sculpture. Once the viewers realize

that beneath the skin lays a real frozen deer. I will cause some feeling of repulses to the viewer.

Among the Japanese people. The pexcell deer represent the Japanese culture and traditions. The use of the real deer is very symbolic in the Japanese’s culture, deer have been used since ancient times in the Japanese traditions deer’s have been used in poetry, songs, and arts. In the western countries, the pixcell deer just represents a unique sculpture. There is no cultural attachment to the sculpture. Most of the people in the western country who have interacted with the Japanese culture view the pixel deer as the mixture of modernized and cultural sculpture. It represents the ancient Japanese culture as well as the modernized western culture.

I view the pixel deer a modern sculpture that has incorporated that Japanese culture in the design. The use of modern material such beads in the sculpture shows how the Japanese arts are changing and adoption to the western civilization. Previously I would have viewed the deer as any frame holding the crystals together, allowing the sculpture to be free standing. After this course, my views have really changed. I do now understand the Japanese cultural beliefs and how they have affected the works of art. I can now see how the artists in japan have tried to incorporate modernized technology in their arts at the same time maintain their traditional symbol, the deer.