Hajime Sorayama - 20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Day Sale in association with Yongle Hong Kong Tuesday, November 29, 2022 | Phillips

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  • “When I was in elementary school, I liked shiny things and was happy to pick up iron scraps from a lathe factory. when I was an adolescent, I became interested in girls, and the ‘sexy robot’ was born by combining them.”
    — Hajime Sorayama
    Fresh to the market and coming to auction for the very first time, Sexy Robot_Floating is a prime example of the Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama’s signature oeuvre that cemented his reputation worldwide, centring upon an ongoing pursuit for beauty regarding the human form. Since 1978, Sorayama began taking the cold, science fiction idea of a robot, employing the medium of shiny chrome metal and bestowing its emotionally detached programming with erotic qualities to create his hyper-realistic “sexy robots” in suggestive and pinned-up positions.

     

    Coined as the “gynoid” or “fembot”, the artist explained that his“longings were not so much carnal as they were an admiration of women as goddesses,” and as a result, created curvy, lustful feminine figures that not only embodied humanity, but also sexual objects of desire. Sexy Robot_Floating sees the themes offuturism, cyberpunk, and sex all come into play, embodying desire and impossible beauty standards as she lifts off the ground with her head tilted upwards and glowing immensely, yet leaves those feelings and looks in a fantasy world contained within the tailored lightbox, unattainable in reality and unmistakably robotic. As the first illustrator to turn to robots as a recurring theme in his body of work, Sorayama was a pioneer in his own right in marrying sex and technology in art, making the Sexy Robot undoubtedly the most sought-after series.

     

    Another example of the present work exhibited at Tokyo, NANZUKA Gallery, Hajime Sorayama: Sex Matter, 14 March – 12 April 2020 Image Courtesy of NANZUKA

    Another example of the present work exhibited at Tokyo, NANZUKA Gallery, Hajime Sorayama: Sex Matter, 14 March – 12 April 2020
    Image Courtesy of NANZUKA

     

    Born in Ehime, Japan and currently based in Tokyo, Hajime Sorayama received his BFA from Chuo Bijutse Gakuen in 1969. In 1999, he designed the award-winning robotic pet ‘aibo’ for Sony.

     

    Sorayama has exhibited internationally at chi K11 art space, Guangzhou (2021); HOW Art Museum, Shanghai (2021); NANZUKA 2G, Tokyo (2021, 2020); NANZUKA, Tokyo; Central Embassy, Bangkok (2019); AISHONANZUKA, Hong Kong (2018). His work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Smithsonian Institute of Technology Museum, Washington D.C.; World Erotic Art Museum, Miami; US Library of Congress, Washington D.C., among others. In 2020, another edition of the current work was included as part of the Hajime Sorayama: Sex Matter solo exhibition at NANZUKA Gallery, Tokyo and the Tokyo Pop Underground group exhibition at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, Los Angeles.

     

     

    • Provenance

      Private Collection
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

    • Exhibited

      Los Angeles, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, Tokyo Pop Underground, 23 November 2019 – 18 January 2020 (another example exhibited)
      Tokyo, NANZUKA Gallery, Hajime Sorayama: Sex Matter, 14 March – 12 April 2020 (another example exhibited)

161

Sexy Robot_Floating

signed and numbered 'Sorayama 12/15' on the reverse of the right foot
acrylonitrile butadiene styrene resin, urethane resins, silver plating, LED neon light and steel
270 x 103 x 103 cm. (106 1/4 x 40 1/2 x 40 1/2 in.)
Executed in 2019, this work is number 12 from an edition of 15.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
HK$1,000,000 - 2,000,000 
€124,000-249,000
$128,000-256,000

Sold for HK$2,268,000

Contact Specialist

Danielle So
Specialist, Head of Day Sale
+852 2318 2027
danielleso@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Day Sale in association with Yongle

Hong Kong Auction 30 November 2022