Survival Sculpture

Visitors to UC Santa Barbara’s Art Museum this fall may enter at their own peril. It’s a toxic fun zone, thanks to noted young Japanese sculptor Kenji Yanobe, whose works are gathered under the title “Survival System Train and Other Sculpture.”

As implied by the title, this is art that combines wildly imaginative references to toys, science fiction and concern for an eco-challenged future.

That much we learn from the first encounter. Situated in the entryway, Yanobe’s “Yellow Suit” is a plump, bright yellow body suit made of lead, steel, rubber and grass, and including a Geiger counter that ticks eerily in the gallery--making us wonder about the radiation level. Flanking the human suit is a companion suit for a dog. Funny as the pair might be, the fact that the piece was created after a nuclear power-plant mishap in Japan gives a quick insight to the duality of Yanobe’s work.

This is one of those shows that can be appreciated on many levels and in different ways, depending on age. Children may find a purer fascination for the gizmos and comic-book values than their warier parents, conditioned by years of nuclear dread.

The dark side of Yanobe’s aesthetic, the “survival” aspect, is made clear in a series of photographs documenting his trip to Chernobyl. Clad in a yellow protective suit, the artist visits such things as bumper cars and a Ferris wheel--emblems of abandoned innocence--in the desolate wasteland that the city has become in the aftermath of nuclear disaster.

Several of the pieces, pods and train cars are set on a system of small-scale railroad tracks which thread their way through the gallery. In the separate Sedgwick Gallery, the tracks stop at the wall, as if leading through to the main gallery, a site-specific prank.

Born in Osaka in 1965, Yanobe admits to the potent influence of television, the fastidious culture of Japanese animation and the comic-book world called manga. Those pop-cultural forces run freely in the sculptor’s work, along with a rebel’s sense of humor, which finds him revising the art-world code of conduct. But those aspects are also combined with an underlying seriousness and ecological awareness that gives his art its sting and its resonance.

Still, in a very real way, Godzilla takes on the art world through Yanobe’s outlandish sculpture. One large piece in the main gallery is the half monster/dinosaur creature called “Foot Soldier (Godzilla),” which, like all the pieces here, can be operated. Yanobe calls the contraption, painted in a shade of unnatural blue, a “tele-existence type, pants-model traveling weapon.” The Sedgwick Gallery houses creatures patterned after characters from the cartoon “Astroboy.”

As much as the various works here follow a similar pattern, each has its own function, point of reference and artistic identity. The “Oxygen/Water Container” is a large display case on wheels, fitted with water-filled antique scientific tubes and a bed of real grass, precious resources we shouldn’t take for granted.

For his sculptural materials, Yanobe uses funky, cast-off industrial goods rather than rely on high-tech materials, raising harsh questions about the role of technology.

One of the most striking and funny contraptions is the “Head Car,” a bulbous pod made from rusty metal and armed with robot-like pincers. The shape suggests a squat Sumo wrestler and is equipped with a saddle for a seat.

This unexpected Wild West touch hints at a frontier ethic at play in that work and the show in general, except the frontier alluded to may be the final one, the one confronted in Mad Max movies and in our post-nuclear nightmares.

This exhibit, one of the must-see shows mounted in this space, will be the last at the UCSB Museum before it closes for a year, preparing the way for a bigger, better venue. Bring the kids. Yanobe has fashioned his own mock amusement park, full of conflicting messages and materials.

He deals with chilling realities and potentialities, armed with a sly flair for comedy and a tinkerer’s savvy. In the end, the show serves as a cautionary tale lined with whimsy--art so funny, it hurts.

BE THERE

Show--”Survival System Train and Other Sculpture by Kenji Yanobe,” through Nov. 30 at the UC Santa Barbara Art Museum. Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday., 1-5 p.m., Sunday; 893-2951.