Born in Osaka, Japan, Naotaka Hiro studied at CalArts and worked as an assistant to Paul McCarthy, the prolific Los Angeles-based artist. During the time he spent in art school and working for McCarthy, Hiro began connecting his mixed-media art practice to Gutai, a Japanese art movement that emerged in the newly democratic nation in the 1950s and prioritized process and performance. Hiro’s work is marked by a deep investigation into the self, resulting in sculptures and paintings that are both intensely personal and universally resonant. Hiro creates one sculpture a year cast from his own body, with the final forms revealing his self-limiting process. In A Hole in My Stomach, Hiro explores a play on words with his body, creating the shape of an “A” with his cast figure that has a void where his stomach would be. Unlike classical figural sculptures depicting muscular or fertile bodies, Hiro’s work shows us a more vulnerable and perhaps more relatable form of the human body.
Born in Osaka, Japan, Naotaka Hiro studied at CalArts and worked as an assistant to Paul McCarthy, the prolific Los Angeles-based artist. During the time he spent in art school and working for McCarthy, Hiro began connecting his mixed-media art practice to Gutai, a Japanese art movement that emerged in the newly democratic nation in the 1950s and prioritized process and performance. Hiro’s work is marked by a deep investigation into the self, resulting in sculptures and paintings that are both intensely personal and universally resonant. Hiro creates one sculpture a year cast from his own body, with the final forms revealing his self-limiting process. In A Hole in My Stomach, Hiro explores a play on words with his body, creating the shape of an “A” with his cast figure that has a void where his stomach would be. Unlike classical figural sculptures depicting muscular or fertile bodies, Hiro’s work shows us a more vulnerable and perhaps more relatable form of the human body.
Social Choreography Score
by Kim Miller
Social Choreography Score
by Kim Miller
Where do you perceive holes in your life? Are these holes, or missing connections, a lack? Imagine the wind passing through a hole in your life. Can the hole also be a place of freedom of movement? Allow yourself to move freely, even with the holes. Imagine sharing a missed connection with someone.
Observe the sculpture while standing tall.
Imagine having your skeleton made out of metal. How would this affect your joints and movements?
Start by moving your arms without bending it. What positions can you make?
Let the movement travel down to your torso, still thinking about metal joints.
Finally let it move to your legs, keeping everything stiff like the sculpture.
Now notice that the sculpture has no arms.
Continue your stiff movements but now without using your arms. Drop them by your side and keep them there.
Let this movement travel you in space, don’t feel like you can only stay in one place.
Stop your movement and look at the sculpture again.
Notice how the torso has a hole thru it, does this change your stiff movements from before.
Incorporate this new elements into your stiff movements and notice the changes it makes, still not using your arms.
Once you feel satisfied with your movements pick a singular pose.
Stand still in this pose, as still as the sculpture before you.
After 30 seconds, change positions to one that mimics the sculpture.
Take this pose standing next to the sculpture, as if there are several sculptures on display.
To finish, take in how it feels to be displayed in this position in this location.
Where do you perceive holes in your life? Are these holes, or missing connections, a lack? Imagine the wind passing through a hole in your life. Can the hole also be a place of freedom of movement? Allow yourself to move freely, even with the holes. Imagine sharing a missed connection with someone.
Observe the sculpture while standing tall.
Imagine having your skeleton made out of metal. How would this affect your joints and movements?
Start by moving your arms without bending it. What positions can you make?
Let the movement travel down to your torso, still thinking about metal joints.
Finally let it move to your legs, keeping everything stiff like the sculpture.
Now notice that the sculpture has no arms.
Continue your stiff movements but now without using your arms. Drop them by your side and keep them there.
Let this movement travel you in space, don’t feel like you can only stay in one place.
Stop your movement and look at the sculpture again.
Notice how the torso has a hole thru it, does this change your stiff movements from before.
Incorporate this new elements into your stiff movements and notice the changes it makes, still not using your arms.
Once you feel satisfied with your movements pick a singular pose.
Stand still in this pose, as still as the sculpture before you.
After 30 seconds, change positions to one that mimics the sculpture.
Take this pose standing next to the sculpture, as if there are several sculptures on display.
To finish, take in how it feels to be displayed in this position in this location.
