“It's your fiction that interests me. Your studies of the interplay of human motives and emotion.” ― Isaac Asimov, I, Robot
Asimov’s seminal story is about the allure and potential ramifications of perfecting humanity through sentient technology—what we now call post-human or transhumanism. And like all of the finest works of science fiction, the book is at heart a philosophical tract. Questioning key assumptions about the nature of life itself, through a discourse with the consciousness of advanced robots, Asimov ultimately queries what it is to be human. For the past four decades, the acclaimed Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama has been asking the same questions.
Sorayama’s ongoing Sexy Robots series ponders the alluring, intimidating imaginary of a cyborg human, merging woman and droid, fleshy anatomy and flashy armor, in a cheeky and unsettling continuum from the Hollywood pin-up to the fantastical future. In his finely rendered, sleek and striking mixed media works on canvas—themselves a seamless hybrid of digital and analog mediums—and his iconic sculptural works in steel, Sorayama channels aesthetic visions from Bert Stern to Mel Ramos, Brancusi to Rolls Royce, Egypt to the Oscars. —Shana Nys Dambrot, art critic, curator, and author
https://www.alminerech.com/exhibitions/9796-hajime-sorayama-i-robot