The Seventh Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

The artists Yasuhiko Hayashi and Yusuke Nakano — Paramodel — work collaboratively to produce vast accumulative installations. ‘Paramodel’, a compound noun, combines the prefix ‘para’, meaning beside, with ‘model’, and directly references the artists’ use of mass- produced materials and miniature objects. Hayashi and Nakano work dynamically, side-by-side, creating works with readymade supplies and common Japanese toys. Through their amassed collection of Plarail, a plastic electric train set system (which features in Kids’ APT7), Tomy toy trucks, construction equipment and coloured PVC plumbing, their gallery-based installations speak of a playfully ‘industrialised everyday’. 1 Their work also represents a cross- disciplinary approach that includes art, architecture and design, and transforms gallery spaces into ‘workshops’ or ‘architects’ studios’. Hayashi and Nakano grew up in East Osaka, a region dominated by manufacturing and construction industries. As one of the main industrial centres of Japan, Osaka has had a significant impact on Paramodel’s work; their use of rail and other industrial vehicles reflects the influence of this environment. Osaka’s sophisticated high- speed rail network — the Tokaido Shinkansen line between Tokyo and Osaka — was launched in 1964 and today travels at speeds of up to 270 kilometres per hour, making it among the fastest in the world. 2 The Shinkansen is also a popular Plarail product line. Symbols of modernity abound in Paramodel’s installations. The plumbing matrix that features in How to make a paramodel 2012 evokes a network of enclosed waterslides, or perhaps a new city transport system. With this work, Paramodel also pays homage to Osaka’s conveyer-belt sushi — or ‘sushi trains’ as they are known in Australia — by incorporating it into their urban vision as sushi trucks. Plastic sushi, which is often found in the window displays of Japanese restaurants, is positioned atop Matchbox trucks. Tommy sushi 2009–12, is given a slightly surreal touch, as childlike wonder is juxtaposed with the marvels of industrial urbanism. It also prompts us to imagine what our cities could be like rather than merely accepting what they already are. Paramodel inject an inventive sense of fun into their art-making process. The Waterworks card game complements their pipeline installations. 3 In their 2010 photographic series, ‘remaining and vanished landscape’, the movements of a radio-controlled car, fitted with a light attached to its roof, are tracked through industrial locations using long-exposure photography, producing a neon- like ‘drawing’. 4 Drawing, in its expanded form, is also present in Paramodel’s signature work paramodelic-graffiti 2008–ongoing, which enfolds the walls, floor and ceiling of the gallery space through a toy rail network. The graphic quality of this work and its blue-and-white palette draws on traditional genres of Japanese art, such as blue-and-white ceramics, tiles, indigo textiles, kimonos and Azuri-e blueprints. Wall-based works often depict landscapes. Likewise, floor-based art can suggest a bird’s-eye view or a topographical map’s contour lines. When seen at a reduced scale, Paramodel’s work suggests public transport routes or a blueprint for a continuously expanding city — an endless urban sprawl. Rail provides a means for travelling, for commuting, a way to get from A to B. More broadly, rail provides a means to get somewhere else, which is what Paramodel has built. In this sense, Paramodel joint factory 2012, like all of their cities, is a utopia. The utopic dream of the ideal city is a recurrent theme in modern thought. However, utopia — literally, ‘no place’ — is always left unfinished. Paramodel seem playfully aware of this; even after the installation is finished, it remains perpetually under construction, with cranes, trucks and diggers left on site. The ideal city is always a work in progress. In this sense, Paramodel explores the imaginative possibilities inherent in daily life. For these artists the city exists as ‘a source of endless wonder; the construction site as fun park; the morning commute as roller-coaster ride.’ 5 In a room full of toy train tracks, Paramodel reminds us that life is a journey, not a destination. Andrea Bell 1 Reuben Keehan, ‘New worlds from old’, in Paramodel , Seigensha Art Publishing, Kyoto, 2010, p.8. 2 Central Japan Railway Company website <http://english.jr -central. co.jp/about/highspeed.html> , viewed 10 July 2012. 3 Reuben Keehan, ‘Live Sydney, Live Tokyo: Sites, spaces, urban dioramas’, Column , no.3, Artspace, Sydney, 2011 p.154. 4 Matthew Larking, ‘Paramodel Solo Exhibition: The World According to P’, The Japan Times Online , Friday 13 August 2010 <http://www. japantimes.co.jp/text/fa20100813b2.html >, viewed 15 July 2012. 5 Reuben Keehan, ‘New worlds from old’, p.8. PARAMODEL The imaginative possibilities of daily life 173