Usami’s Mushroom Cloud Series evolved from his ‘ man shapes’ that he created in the ‘60s. In Mushroom Cloud, lines and circles suggest a universe/relationships in which everything is tightly correlated. The spheres contain figures in different poses – bending, standing and throwing, and just outside of these spheres, figures radiating from the circumference and merging with the background to suggest freedom and hope for the future.

Growing up in the war years, I quickly learned about the fragility of life and one’s mortality. I want to draw as if I am touching, as if I am hearing. Mostly my work starts from a clearly defined blueprint, which I might think of in geometrical terms. I am interested in the complex networks of relationships. For instance, the images of existence and nature are clearly defined in my work and given an everlasting presence with no beginning and ending – a continuous sphere. Life itself is a continuous cycle – birth, death and re-birth.

Keiji Usami 2005