We are pleased to present sculpture artist, Hana Tobari’s solo exhibition “Immanence”, starting from November 13th. This is the first time Tobari is featured on her own at LOKO GALLERY. A Tama Art University BFA graduate of 2016 (her graduation work FORCE was selected Excellent Work in 2016) and MA graduate of 2018 with top honors, the upcoming artist has gained positive reviews ever since. She currently works at a shared studio in Kawaguchi, Saitama.

Tobari’s sculpture is realized by burning metal rod in flame which heats up to 3,000 degrees, combining flammable gas (acetylene gas) and oxygen until the rod liquefies. The metal drop glows in red while the burner sparks while the artist works carefully not to let it fall, which creates a highly tense scene. The confrontment of the artist and the material continues for several years, which eventuates as a mass that weighs nearly 400 kilograms, literally wrapping around the artist’s body.

Metal could be liquified, bent, distorted, and rust. It may apparently seem as if the artist is taking control over the material to create whatever she aims for. But for Tobari, who struggles with metal while tending not to force her artistic intentions to it, her recent interest is towards the form brought from the conflict of the material and her tendency.

At this exhibition, we will present her massive sculpture works along with drawings made from metal powder which derived from the creation process. Although the size and form of her works vary, there is consistency in which the works are completed by Tobari’s repetitive subtle actions – a metaphor of the smallest unit’s life phenomenon, which continues from birth to annihilation.

Experience Hana Tobari’s sculptures. Witness how the emission of the pure energy from them tremors through the subconscious nature inside us.

The form brought from the connection and dialogue with the material,
the equivalent relationship and balance between my artistic intention and the material
– this is what I perceive as sculpture.

Burning red-hot metal, dripping them one by one, it becomes a form before I know.
It transforms like a living creature, which decays and rusts through time.
From the moment I discovered how law of nature is immanent in metal,
I feel as if my artworks are proving me what it means to make a sculpture,
to deal with metal, and to “form”.

Hana Tobari

Press release – Hana TOBARI “Immanence”

ARTIST PROFILE: Hana Tobari