Shinkichi Tajiri

'Seed no 4' 1962-1964

Location: Before the entrance to Potentiaal

When the Japanese bombard Pearl Harbour in 1942, thousands of emigrated Japanese in America are placed in internment camps, including the relatives of Shinkichi Tajiri (1923). In 1943 he turns volunteer for a special military unit, which lands in Naples in 1944. When Tajiri is injured, he becomes a draughtsman in camps for 'Displaced Persons'.

Back in Chicago he studies at the Art Institute of Chicago and leaves for Paris in 1949. Tajiri studies with Zadkine and Fernand Léger, comes into contact with the Cobra movement and in 1949 he joins in their first, controversial exhibition in Amsterdam. Still, Tajiri is not a real Cobra artist. His sculptures are generated in a less spontaneous manner and he works less from the subconscious than artists like Appel or Corneille.

In the 1950s Tajiri makes metal sculptures (often of objects he finds) of carnivorous plants and warriors. They are not odes to war, though, Tajiri has a far greater need to purge himself of the horrors of violence. He is not only a sculptor, he also works with film and photography. For instance, he wins the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival (1955) with an experimental film on the use of hash.

In 1956 he moves from Paris to Amsterdam, one year later he marries the artist Ferdi. As a result of the birth of his two daughters Tajiri becomes fascinated with the concepts of 'growth' and 'life'. When representing the Netherlands in 1962 at the Venice Biennale, he shows his first 'Seed', which is followed by a number of variations.

With the pregnant seed bolls on the high stem he combines masculine and feminine in one sculpture. Eroticism and aggression feature in his work frequently. Still, for Tajiri aggression is not only connected with grief, nor is eroticism only connected with sensual pleasure. Both are connected to the natural urge of human beings to survive.

Sculptures

Shinkichi Tajiri