There was a moment in American childhood when outer space seemed both completely mysterious and completely within reach.
Japanese tin robots helped give that imagination a physical form. Their gears, colors, moving parts, and futuristic designs suggested an exciting world that existed somewhere beyond the living room floor.
American Material Memory preserves that intersection between technology and imagination. These robots weren’t simply toys. They were early lessons in how manufactured objects could make an imaginary future feel real.
From the Artist:
This was my first attempt at drawing my silver, 1950s Horikawa Attacking Martian Robot.
The problem was that my drawing was so large, laid out on my drawing table, that when I finished, I realized I had forced the perspective of the entire drawing.
The head was large, the body was small, and the feet were tiny — too funny!
I decided to trim the image to this shape because it was still pretty darn cool. I also loved how some of the burnished graphite really looked like stamped chrome.
I think the best part for me is the dent by the upper right eye. It happened when our housekeeper Maria didn’t realize that these fall off the bookshelf when you dust quickly, yeah, they can even break. My robot survived, but a couple of my die-cast bicycles didn’t. =-(
There was a moment in American childhood when outer space seemed both completely mysterious and completely within reach.
Japanese tin robots helped give that imagination a physical form. Their gears, colors, moving parts, and futuristic designs suggested an exciting world that existed somewhere beyond the living room floor.
American Material Memory preserves that intersection between technology and imagination. These robots weren’t simply toys. They were early lessons in how manufactured objects could make an imaginary future feel real.
From the Artist:
This was my first attempt at drawing my silver, 1950s Horikawa Attacking Martian Robot.
The problem was that my drawing was so large, laid out on my drawing table, that when I finished, I realized I had forced the perspective of the entire drawing.
The head was large, the body was small, and the feet were tiny — too funny!
I decided to trim the image to this shape because it was still pretty darn cool. I also loved how some of the burnished graphite really looked like stamped chrome.
I think the best part for me is the dent by the upper right eye. It happened when our housekeeper Maria didn’t realize that these fall off the bookshelf when you dust quickly, yeah, they can even break. My robot survived, but a couple of my die-cast bicycles didn’t. =-(
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