Japanese artist Motohiko Odani’s massive, fantastic, classical-style neon and plaster sculptural object “Surf Angel (Provisional Monument 2)” towers in a narrow gallery at the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art in Toyko. The sculpture is of a winged women standing with her arms outstretched like a cross on a surfboard as water laps at the edges.
The “Surf Angel” is a collision of forms. Her figure is like a Greek figure rescued from antiquity in modern times, all white, devoid of it’s color, but augmented by an abstract geometric array of white neon (or are these fluorescent) lights filling the void where her face and most of her head should be. At certain angles giving the effect of a halo. The scale is monumental. The image is indelible and rapturous.
GLOBAL GRAPHICA 