A miniature boombox, a baseball bat, a stuffed animal—these are just some of the many scrap items that are given new life by the Japanese artist duo known as magma, who cut, mold, and combine them in an innovative art form that pushes the boundaries of collage.
They transformed some of the world’s most beloved Pokémon into T-shirt graphics unlike anything we’ve seen before. Let’s take a closer look at how magma see the world through objects.
The moments before an image comes into focus
The studio of the artist duo magma is full of objects—life-sized resin dog statues, traffic cones, mechanical bulls, anime figurines, shogi game pieces, stuffed animals—that one day may be transformed into works of art. Although the collection is not arranged in any particular order, the space feels like a gallery of magma’s art.
This is where the members of magma, Jun Sugiyama and Kenichi Miyazawa, created five colleges for UT, combining a huge variety of items to form the silhouettes of five Pokémon: Pikachu, Magikarp, Psyduck, Magnemite, and Charizard. Up close, their Pikachu looks like no more than a disparate collection of objects—among them a helmet, a crate, a baseball bat, and a pair of binoculars—but it coalesces into a clear image when viewed as a whole.
“Instead of paint, our medium is objects,” says Sugiyama. “With our Pikachu and Charizard, we left enough space between the objects so you can see their outlines. We used a different approach for Psyduck and Magikarp, bringing the objects closer together.”
For this collection, magma gathered and arranged salvaged objects into images of Pokémon characters. Miyazawa was in charge of the Pikachu, Charizard and Magnemite graphics, while Sugiyama worked on the Magikarp and Psyduck graphics.
“Once we decided on our approach, we started to collect yellow objects,” says Miyazawa. “But the Pikachu piece, for example, would have ended up looking gloomy if we had used only yellow, so we looked for things with bright and distinct hues.
We used items that we already had in stock but also hunted for other objects that we could use. I like to use plain items that could have come from any manufacturer.” Despite the variety of textures, the assembled objects clearly capture each Pokémon’s shape and distinctive characteristics—Pikachu’s red cheeks, Psyduck’s thick beak, and Magikarp’s big round eyes.
Miyazawa says that a few aspects of the Pikachu collage worked particularly well. “The battery charger at the back of his head was a lucky find, a nod to how Pikachu is an Electric Type Pokémon. Also, we tried to use as few objects as possible for the outline; the swim fins were perfect for the ears.”
This battery charger served as the back of Pikachu’s head.
The duo uses 3D models, 2D graphics, and even spatial modeling to create their art. They developed the techniques they used in this collection shortly after partnering up, during a 2010 project with the fashion magazine Soen. “The theme was ‘collage,’” says Sugiyama. “It was the January issue, so we made a bright red lobster, a good luck symbol for the new year.”
Miyazawa adds, “When you see something and at first can’t make it out, there’s an element of surprise when you can finally recognize the image. I love the moments before the work comes into focus. I also find joy in being able to turn discarded scrap and junk into art.” from a variety of materials, have been part of magma’s oeuvre since the beginning.
The artists used a different technique for Magnemite, photographing each object and then combining the images digitally. Magnemite’s body is an exercise ball, with a wall clock for the eye and, as with the original, horseshoe magnets on either side of the body. The resulting collage feels somewhat unbalanced but is unmistakably Magnemite.
The duo takes yet another approach with the kids’ T-shirt graphics (one with Gengar and Lucario and another with Piplup, Chimchar, and Turtwig), which look like screenshots from the games—specifically, from the 8-bit Game Boy era. From artwork to artwork, magma makes use of a variety of creative techniques.
Looking for materials everywhere
Sugiyama and Miyazawa met at Musashino Art University. They both had a two-year gap between high school and university and soon bonded over that shared experience. They began to collaborate on projects and formed magma in 2008. “We both preferred to make art from existing things, rather than creating something from scratch. It was the 2000s, and collage was just starting to get popular,” says Miyazawa.
For the most part, magma’s collages are handmade. Their tool-filled studio looks rather like an auto repair shop, but it is surprisingly tidy.
In 2009, the university presented magma with an Award for Excellence for their ambitious graduation project, Future Shock. The work’s centerpiece is a table laden with food in a somber, low-lit room. Automatons with giant mouths sit around the table while robot chefs prepare food nearby. The robots’ movements and the sounds of chewing lend a bizarre yet grave air to the surreal scene. After uploading a video of Future Shock to YouTube, magma was surprised when pop star Kaela Kimura asked them to design the set for the music video of her new single, “Wonder Volt.” This was the first of many video and advertising works to which magma applied their three-dimensional art and unique creative genius. The pair credits Nobutaka Kotake, one of their university professors, for helping pave their path to success with his praise for Future Shock. Kotake is also known for three-dimensional art, especially as the stage designer for Tenjo Sajiki, the legendary theater troupe led by avant-garde playwright Shuji Terayama.
“Prof. Kotake did not often compliment his students,” says Sugiyama. “But when we won the Award for Excellence, he was full of praise. He said when he was young, artists often used sturdy, well-built antique materials, like wooden shoe lasts and musical instruments.
And now, here we were, making art from plastic goods, stuffed animals, and other cheap, manufactured products. ‘How the times have changed,’ he said. I’m pretty sure that was why we started focusing on scrap materials.”
Perhaps Kotake was trying to tell his students that by observing objects, an artist can better understand the times in which they live. Although magma is following his lead by seeking out salvaged materials and used goods, they also choose some items, such as figurines, simply because they like them. “Ura-Hara (a fashion movement that originated in the back alleys of Harajuku) was popular when I was in high school, and I take a lot of inspiration from it,” says Miyazawa. “A lot of clothing stores made figurines and placed them on their shelves, which made the store feel more fashionable. Your school days—the people you hang out with, the things you notice and fall in love with—are so important. It’s your heritage, something you can never change. I love to see people surrounded by the things they love; it makes me want to be the same. I want to make the most of the objects I’ve collected over the years.”
These keychains, made from a variety of materials, have been part of magma’s oeuvre since the beginning.
“When you look at these things everyday,” explains Sugiyama, “you can get a sense of the times when they were made—what was popular in that era, if there was plenty of money for making things, or whether things were poorly made. We make our art from objects left behind by the people who came before us. I think it’s more than just recycling; we let these objects become more than what they used to be.”
PROFILE
magma｜Composed of Jun Sugiyama (right) and Kenichi Miyazawa (left), the artist duo magma reveal their unique worldview through works that combine salvaged materials, plastics, and appliances. Their portfolio includes furniture, product, and spatial design, in addition to works of art.
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