My Sculpture / Instillation entitiled Epic Battle

Epic Battle

The battle takes place in a bamboo forest between two samurai warriors, who represent the cultural clash that took place in Japan during the feudal era. The two warriors are sculptures, using a combination of traditional samurai armour crafting techniques and more conventional methods of construction, using sheet metal, real leather and a wide variety of other materials. The combatants do battle in the middle of a bamboo forest, created using both real bamboo and a triptych of paintings of a bamboo forest which reads from right to left in the traditional Japanese way.

The paintings reinforce the idea of a clash of cultures and a tragic end, showing a transition between two styles of painting, drawing attention to the struggle between traditional and foreign cultures. The struggle is denoted by a more era appropriate style of painting on the canvas to the right which consisted of strategically placed confident, single, disciplined and flat brush strokes using various pressure intensities to create a sense of dimension and perspective. The canvas represents the traditional aged paper used in feudal era Japan which shed tears that run down the canvas as it is forced into a corner and then defeated by another form of painting and culture, one more influenced by the western world, represented by the impressionist painting style which consist mainly of freer brush strokes which concentrate on and emphasise light on objects.

The two warriors are depicted mid battle, seconds after a deadly strike by the black samurai. The red samurai wields a Naginata, a traditional Japanese fighting spear which was fabricated to resemble a Black Dragon Naginata, found during research done about traditional armour designs and construction. The internal structure of the Red Samurai Armour is arc welded steel pipes, which represent the rigidity, inflexibility and almost unbreakable foundation of a traditional culture. The internal structure of the Black Samurai Armour is constructed using nails, screws and multiple pieces of 2x2 Pine and aged Cedar which represent the weaker, unstable,  unrefined foundation, and more fragile nature of a new culture attempting to replace an older one. The black samurai uses a katana which was fabricated to resemble the Gendaito, which carries the shape of a sword designed during the current era.

The project was chosen because of a fascination with Japan and its development as a nation. It depicts a world different from ours, where warriors attempted to hold to a code of honour and respect for both themselves and their enemies.