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— Kazuhiro Tsuji
Living and working in Los Angeles, Kazuhiro Tsuji is a contemporary hyperrealist sculptor. His background however, is special effects. He was one of the early pioneers in Japan, before developing his self-taught craft into a Hollywood career, which spanned 25 years and included Oscar and BAFTA nominations. Now, Kazuhiro is focused on his series of hyperrealist portrait sculptures.
— Andy Warhol
It all started in 2001-2002 when I made a portrait of Dick Smith for his 80th birthday. The whole process and outcome made me realise it was important for me to create this kind of work. This inevitably led to a series of sculptures, with the subject of each dictated by whatever was relevant to my life at the time.
When I create my sculptures they are twice the scale of real life. This conveys the larger than life presence of the subject. It was also my intention to make the observer feel slightly intimidated in their presence, like a child in front of an adult authority figure.
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With this work it was important for the focus to be solely on the face and therefore essential to omit the body. Also, at 2x scale they would have become too large and cumbersome for the observer to view face to face.
Instead of a body, each subject has a bespoke plinth. Whilst designing them, I think about how I want to present each subject. To maintain constant attention on the face, it is important that the plinth does not dominate, yet still expresses the meaning, or intention of why I wanted to create their portrait.
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This particular plinth started as a sculpture in ½ size. I usually start with sketches at an even smaller scale. The main material used was fibreglass resin. For Warhol it was chrome plated where as for Dali and Kahlo a bronze composite was used. >>
For the actual face platinum silicone was utilised, where the platinum acts as a catalyst to cure the material. The sculptures are very time consuming, each taking at least 5 to 6 months to complete. ∎
Kazuhiro Tsuji.