[Title] Paramodelic Xillion-Dot Construction
[Artist] paramodel
[Date]January 17 – March 18, 2008
Chosen as the Hermès annual theme for 2008 is “Fantaisies Indiennes”. The initial window display addressing this concept is the brainchild of the artist duo known as “paramodel.” For this artistic team, one key association with the country of India is reportedly that of “tea.” True to this connection, paramodel has used some 6,500 tea cans printed with the Hermès annual theme and logo to develop this window space in their unique style – which, as anyone familiar with their work knows, strives to banish sensations of the conventional universe and realities
The image portrayed through the medium of this space, evolving a complex composition of clean hexagonal tin cans, is that of a construction site. This is subject matter that this team frequently uses. “Sensations of the charisma of distinctive ambience, drifting through the type of worksite found in most any city. Vividly colored heavy machinery miniatures make noise and move in toy-like fashion, locking the site into the scene of constant creation rich in possibility. While by its very nature a construction site is transient in form and essence, the desire here is to accompany that foundation with efforts to abstract and model signs of the eternal rooted in the creative forces present within.”
Teeming with a mix of elements from both the sage and the common, much like the xillions of sand grains in the Ganges River, this is an awe-inspiring cosmos bathed in colorful and fantastic images. The universe here, which effectively swallows up contradictions of all shape and kind, sustains a state of constant motion and creation. Emerging in the wake of this power is the sense of free and uninhibited potential – the essence of permanence as everlasting as it is expanding.
It is said that, in India, people yearn for transformation into God, while God also goes through a repeated progression of metamorphosis. This gleaming Hermès window, where the products stand in radiant splendor, may also be viewed as a symbol of human transmigration. Into this process, through which flow rich streams of creativity and permanence, the artists have interjected their own captivation with images that overlap with the concept of construction. This window thus stands as an expression of distinctive vision, integrated in the title “Fantaisies Indiennes,” pointing the way to an entity that, while chaotic in appearance, ensures open passage to the realm of the unknown.
The Artists: paramodel
A two-man unit comprised of Yasuhiko Hayashi (born in 1971) and Yusuke Nakano (born in 1976). Both are natives of Higashi-Osaka City located at the foot of Mt. Ikoma in the traditional downtown district of Osaka. Hayashi is a 2001 graduate of Kyoto City University of Arts (Conceptual and Media Art course under the Faculty of Fine Arts). Nakano in 2002 completed studies in Japanese style painting under the Painting Course at the Kyoto University of Arts Graduate School. The pair kicked off their artistic collaboration in 2001, assuming the name of “Paramodel” in 2003. Setting their sights on the creation of “paradise, unparalleled scenery and paradoxical models” as major themes, their creations span installations using toys, paintings, cubic images, photographs, animation and numerous other means of expression and media formats.