For centuries, humans have been fantasizing about artificial automatons. Renaissance artists like Da Vinci came up with concepts of androids, and writers of the 19th century provided us with the figure of Frankenstein's monster. In the previous hundred years, when humans began to discover new technologies and explore space, fantasy turned into reality. Hajime Sorayama is a Japanese artist who combines the concept of robots with the images of pin-up girls to create his own world of erotic retro-futurism. Previous year, Marijn already wrote an amusing article about Sorayama’s kinbaku Pin-Ups. This time, we’ll focus on his futuristic sexy dolls.
Fig. 1. Sorayama with his art (robo-dinosaur mates with woman; instagram.com)
Fig. 2. Robotic pin-up model (sorayama.jp)
Fig. 3. Robotic pin-up model (sorayama.jp)
Fig. 4. Playboy sculpture (sorayama.jp)
Fig. 5. Robotic mermaid (instagram.com)
Fig. 6. Robotic mermaid (sorayama.jp)
Fig. 7. Robotic Monroe (sorayama.jp)
Fig. 8. sorayama.jp
Fig. 9. sorayama.jp
Fig. 10. Robotic woman from Metropolis (entertainment.time.com)
Erotic Retro-Futurism
Some of Sorayama's "tin women" wear a resemblance to the female robot from Metropolis (1927). In his brave new world, everything is robotized: males, females, cats, dogs (the Aibo dog’s relatives), and marine creatures. Some paintings demonstrate a synthesis of human flesh and metal as if humans had learned to produce replaceable body parts. Several arts depicting the copulation of rebuilt humans can be called cyborg-shunga. Unlike the characters from the images of Naoki Yamaji, the creations of Sorayama look like actual men and women wearing glamorous robotic suits.
Fig. 11. instagram.com
Fig. 12. sorayama.jp
Fig. 13. sorayama.jp
Pin-Up As A Cult
Hajime Sorayama was born in Imabari, Ehime prefecture, in post-war Japan. Influenced by Playboy, he started drawing pin-ups already in high school. As Soryama says himself, "That's my mania. I've been drawing them since high school. Back then, there was this thing for the Playboy and Penthouse playmates. Now, it's the girl-next-door, idol type, but in our day, these pin-ups were like goddesses. I guess I could describe it as my own goddess cult" (wikipedia.org). We can say for sure that if robotic Hel, created by the inventor Rotwang in Metropolis, started a career as a pin-up model, her images would look close to Sorayama's pictures. The distinctive feature of his futuristic models is plasticity typically associated with flesh.
Fig. 14. sorayama.jp
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Click HERE for an article on Sorayama's bondage pin-ups.
Sources: instagram.com/hajimesorayamaofficial; sorayama.jp; Wikipedia.org, twitter.com
