In the heart of a concrete jungle lies a cave that exists on the faint line between fiction and reality. Tripping the light fantastic between pop culture fantasy and art and design, harnessing inspirations from American action figures of the 1980s to the rich culture of Japanese vinyl toys, Tokyo-based sculptor Takahiro Komuro offers a phantom fantasy for anyone who grew up on a diet of sci-fi blockbusters and primitive video games.
“I am interested in the expression between reality and fiction,” explains Komuro, founder of TkoM Factory inc., “so I composed the exhibition based on the image of a phantom cave that appears in London for a limited time only.” Until 28 January 2024, one can step inside that mysterious cave at the always-brilliant StolenSpace Gallery.
Inspired by the space of the gallery itself, Takahiro Komuro’s Phantom Cave allows visitors to enter his singular world, exploring the limits of their own imagination and nostalgia through sculptures that are familiar and frightening at once. A child of the late 1980s and early ‘90s, the Japanese artist’s inspirations are rich in the last remnants of pre-internet popular culture; a time of fantasy, horror, excitement and excess.
From flying volcanoes to psychedelic cyclopes that look like something out of Masters of the Universe on acid, bear-bats that straddle cute and chilling to goth Transformers, Komuro’s cave is a blissful bounce around distorted childhood fantasies that is impossible not to adore.
Phantom Cave by Takahiro Komuro is on show at StolenSpace Gallery, London, until 28 January 2024; catch it while you can.
@stolenspacegallery
@tkomfactory
