Balance Of Power

With an exhibition under way at Pace Gallery, Kohei Nawa discusses his obsessions: tradition, technology and artificial intelligence

Japanese sculptor Kohei Nawa is an artist of the 21st century. He’s obsessed with artificial intelligence. He uses Twitter. His Kyoto studio is packed not with clay and carving knives but with iMacs loaded with the 3D modelling software he uses to shape ambitious, futuristic sculptures, many of which can only be built with the help of machines that mould materials in ways human hands never could. But when Nawa talks about his art, it becomes clear that it’s about more than technology—it’s about tradition.

“The Japanese culture is very philosophical and it is a very important source of inspiration for me,” says Nawa. “I really respect the wonderful skills of craftsmen, whose practices are also ways of thinking and ways of living.”

This mix of the old and new can be seen in one of Nawa’s most famous works, a dazzling 10.4-metre-tall golden throne that was suspended above visitors’ heads in the Louvre’s glass pyramid from July last year to February this year. “Created with reference to the forms of festival floats and portable shrines that appear in the rituals and festivities of the East, Throne fuses today’s 3D modelling techniques with gold leaf techniques that date back to ancient Egypt,” says Nawa.