Kazumi Ikemoto
Born 1954, Kyoto Prefecture
Until now, Kazumi Ikemoto had hardly even touched a handheld game console. Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield , which he just acquired, is, Ikemoto says, the first video game he has experienced. His long period of game play, until he finally reached the Hall of Fame , was time to look, feel, and think, using a game console instead of pen, pencil, or brush. The “experience” sought in a fictional universe was a process during which Pokémon and Ikemoto, the artist, fused their world views. The setting of this work is the Galar region. The Pokémon Trainer boy and his partners — the Pokémon Ikemoto selected while playing — have all sorts of adventures while traveling from Postwick to Wyndon. The three-dimensional picture scroll, in three parts, Ikemoto created includes landmarks deeply familiar to Pokémon fans. These depictions of landscapes, so characteristic of Ikemoto, develop as a series, inviting one to an as-yet-unseen future.* * To create the images, Ikemoto blows colored enamels (powdered glass) mixed with alcohol onto the surface of the jars and then fires them to fuse the enamels to the glass.
Photo by Taku Saiki
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