Exhibition view: photo by Kohei Matsumura

There is a woman slumped against the wall at the back of the venue. The thought of what happened to her crosses your mind for a moment, but then you remember that this is an exhibition of hyperrealist sculptures. The thought then crosses your mind that the woman could be a work of art, or that she could be a living person. At this point, like Schrödinger's ^cat , two realities exist in the viewer's mind.

"Reshaped Reality: 50 Years of Hyperrealist Sculpture," currently being held at Osaka Culturarium Tempozan, is the "Chapter 2: Reflections on People and Life" exhibition of the Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025. Through 39 works by 27 artists, the exhibition aims to provide an overview of the history of hyperrealism, which is said to have begun in the late 1960s and early 1970s, up to the present day.
Bodybuilder (1989-90) by Dwayne Hanson, a pioneer of this movement, and Pat & Veerle (1974) by Jacques Verduin, who led the movement in Europe, are extremely elaborate in terms of form, skin texture, and facial expression.

1: A thought experiment using a cat, published by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. A cat, radioactive material, a detector, and a poison gas generator are placed in a box. If the radioactive material decays, poison gas is released and the cat dies; if it does not decay, the cat survives. In quantum mechanics, particles exist in multiple states simultaneously until they are observed, so until the box is opened and the cat is observed, it is thought that the cat is in a state where both "alive" and "dead" exist at the same time. This experiment pointed out the incomprehensibility of applying the theory of quantum mechanics to such a macroscopic object.

When it comes to the experience of viewing works such as human clones, some may recall the wax figures at Madame Tussauds, which was founded in London in 1835. The culture of wax figures is said to have originated from death masks, and they have been used to symbolize the greatness of powerful people, as well as for anatomical research and education.
However, the motifs of hyperrealism, including the works of Hanson and Verduin, are often not famous people or figures from mythology or religion, but ordinary people living in modern society. In this respect, it is clearly different from Madame Tussauds. The important thing about hyperrealism is not only to represent the subject realistically, but also to represent the reality of people themselves and provoke thoughts about reality.
In this sense, could it be said that the works of George Segal, who established a technique for making casts of living people while still wearing their clothes and used humans and the environment surrounding them as motifs for his sculptures, share roots with hyperrealism, even though they are monochrome?

Furthermore, the molding techniques established by Segal had a major influence on subsequent artistic expression, but advances in materials and techniques have a major impact on how realistically a subject can be expressed.
The works in this exhibition also use a variety of materials. For example, works by Brian Booth Craig, Robert Graham, and John De Andrea are made from bronze. Due to its hardness, bronze cannot reproduce the details of skin, but it does emphasize the form. Also, when using resin, as Hanson and Verduin do, it is possible to reproduce the texture of skin to a certain extent when making a mold. In addition, it is easy to create additional shapes based on the mold.
However, with bronze and resin, it is necessary to paint the surface to recreate a human-like appearance. This makes it difficult to recreate the transparency of skin. And, crucially, these materials do not allow for hair to be grown, so body hair cannot be recreated. The lack of downy hair is obviously different from that of a real human, but perhaps the recent trend of hair removal has made the works appear more realistic than they were back then.

In contrast to these materials, modern changes in materials and techniques have brought several developments to hyperrealism. For example, soft silicone can reproduce the details of skin, such as the unevenness and wrinkles, as well as its transparency and color. It is also possible to implant hair, making it possible to recreate downy hair. The splendor of these details can be fully appreciated by viewing Tom Kübler's "Ethyl" (2001), Kazu Hiro's "Andy Warhol" (2013), Walter Cazotte's "Stringiamoci a coorte" (2017), and Sam Jinks's "Woman and Child" (2010).

On the other hand, some artists attempt to achieve realistic expression using materials and methods other than simply reproducing surface details. For example, Matilda ter Heyne exhibited a sculpture of herself, which is a mannequin. Daniel Furman exhibited Caroline (2014), a work of a woman lying face down against a wall, mentioned at the beginning of this article, which is also based on a mannequin. The most unusual aspect of this exhibition is that Furman's work is the only one in which no skin is exposed, and no attempt is made to reproduce the texture of skin in order to make it appear human. Nevertheless, the effect of creating the illusion of a human figure through silhouette alone overturns the premise of hyperrealism.
Glaser/Kuntz's Jonathan (2009) is perhaps unique in the exhibition. By projecting images onto the face of a plaster cast of a man sitting in a wheelchair, the subject appears to be alive and speaking. While the other works capture and give form to a single moment in time, this dynamically changing work represents a new kind of realistic expression made possible by technology.
As mentioned above, most human sculptures can be said to capture a still image or a moment, but there is also a process of expressing the dynamic reality of reality by specializing in momentaryness. For example, Carol A. Feuillaume creates a work depicting a swimmer just as he emerges from the water. His skillful depiction of water droplets gives the impression of dynamism as he has just risen to the surface. Mark Sajjan's sculptures, such as the embrace of a naked man and woman or the blank expression of a homeless woman, do not depict dynamic momentary images, but they depict moments/objects that we usually turn a blind eye to.

Saijan's work also reminds us that reality changes depending on the environment in which we find ourselves, and it also questions the concept of "reality" that underlies all forms of realism, including hyperrealism, which "expresses people's reality itself."
For example, the works of Ron Mueck and Jerko Bajeski approach things from the perspective of size. Just as the back of a frightened old man appears small, the back of an ordinary man full of confidence appears large, so there is often a discrepancy between actual physical reality and reality in perception.

The term "the environment surrounding people" not only refers to their lifestyles and positions, but also to social conventions and environments. Allen Jones's Refrigerator (2002) questions gender inequality in society by integrating a woman with a refrigerator. Mel Ramos' Chiquita Banana questions the image of women as consumed in commercialism by superimposing the masculine motif of a banana with a nude woman. And Maurizio Cattelan's Ave Maria (2007) humorously questions existing notions. These works expressively raise questions about the existing values ​​that permeate society and the realities that accompany them.

One clear difference between the environment surrounding us today and the 1970s, when this movement first began, is the development of scientific and technological advances, including digital technology. Evan Penny's works, which use Photoshop and other tools to distort images and then create distorted three-dimensional images, prompt us to consider the meaning of perceiving the world as an image. The weightless body depicted in Tony Matelli's Josh (2010) evokes our new reality, expanded by recent space exploration. Patricia Piccinini's work, by representing new forms of life that may one day be born through genetic modification, provokes fundamental questions about what life means to us. In other words, it explores the "reality of the future."

The works in this exhibition can generally be seen within this vein, but there are a few that take a slightly different direction.
The first is Verinde de Bruckere's Elie (2009). Many reality sculptures represent the living and vibrant. However, just as Saijan has created sculptures of situations that people tend to look away from, there are surely some human figures that can only be expressed through sculpture. One of these is "death." Death itself is coexistent with life and should be something that we take for granted. The work is embedded in life and raises questions about the reality of death.

The second is Fabio Viale's Venere Italica (2021). This work is a marble replica of the sculpture of the same name by Antonio Canova, a famous neoclassical sculptor. However, its surface has been treated to resemble Styrofoam. This makes it a work that could be called fake materialism, evoking a misperception of materials.

As can be seen from the works mentioned so far, this exhibition includes conceptual art that goes beyond the boundaries of so-called hyperrealism, incorporating realistic expression, as well as optical illusion-like works that challenge visual perception. Therefore, the title "Reshaped Reality" accurately describes the diverse range of works in this exhibition, but I would also like to point out that the subtitle "50 Years of Hyperrealist Sculpture" is somewhat misleading.

However, the essential significance of this exhibition lies in the fact that it calls into question reality itself, shakes up our perceptions, and reconstructs our everyday perspectives.
For example, Jamie Salmon's works, while superficially extremely sophisticated, deliberately reveal the underside of the facade, revealing just how fragile and superficial our apparent reality is. What emerges from this is the uncertainty of the reality we believe in.
Finally, at the end of the exhibition is Santisimi's IN VIVO (M1) (2013). This work, which resembles a living human being trapped asleep in a case, is the only piece in the exhibition that can be touched. Throughout the exhibition, visitors will encounter a variety of works, and their reality, freed from existing values, will be brought back to reality by touching the objects with their own bodies and reaffirming their presence in the present.

In today's world, layers of reality distinct from the physical are beginning to emerge, such as virtual reality and the metaverse. Furthermore, with fake news disrupting "reality," our perceptions are standing on more unstable ground than ever before. This exhibition sharply sheds light on the fragility of the concept of "reality" in such an era.
In this extremely fragile world, we have no choice but to dance with various beings and the realities they possess, while engaging in dialogue with our subjective reality.

Reshaped Reality: 50 Years of Hyperrealist Sculpture >