Super Arts – Masahiro Ito

Masahiro is a personal hero of mine. Back in Secondary school I would watch the Silent Hill 2 Bonus DVD and be fixated on his work and fascinated by his vision. His technical skill was something for me to aspire to but it was how he thought about his Art that really showed me something new – a new way of thinking. It’s a mode of thought that I have always carried with me as just a natural way of looking at things (not just Art, everything). On the DVD, he spoke of his process when he was designing enemies for Silent Hill 2; he showed a fantastic drawing of a male torso with a hugely disfigured face. For 99% of video games this would be a totally acceptable design; it was creepy, weird and fine – but it wasn’t interesting.

“It was just a guy in a mask” he said. And he was right. “Just” – it was just one thing. It was no more substantial than a dude in a mask and, most importantly, it didn’t say or express anything. This revelation for my young, stupid mind was intense, riveting, exciting and it rattled my nerves as if finding some kind of treasure. But it was more than that, it was potential; a world of artistic potential and exploration as the rules had been switched and the limitations removed. This happened again later in my life with the great Abstract Expressionist influences such as; Franz Kline, Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock who further expanded my horizons but it was back in my teenage bedroom on a cold, winter’s night with my Deftones hoody on and my drawings of eyes, Mitsurugi, The Crow and Blade of the Immortal on the wall where I was shown something priceless by Masahiro Ito.

I’m still a fan of Ito-san and some of his paintings over the years have really grabbed my attention such as this:

This shows us a lot of the themes that are present throughout his work but, to focus on the two that appeal to me most: his subversion of humanity and organic versus mechanical. Here he has rendered a central image we all know and are familiar with, the human form, and removed the humanity. There is no expression, motion or life and in that emptiness there is an upward tilt of the head and almost a feeling of numb acceptance. The thick protruding tubes obscure the face and give off a dirty plastic reflection but most worrying is the one near the mouth with the ventilation device. The gauges, valves and mechanical structures are a theme he returns to often whose rusted, cold angular textures are creations of men. I think he enjoys playing with that; humans creating the thing that imprison them and we are our own worst nightmares. This always reminds me that Silent Hill 2 is a product of this man’s vision but it certainly doesn’t encompass it.

This is a much warmer palette with a really unorthodox composition and, personally, I think he is trying to express a dream-like piecing together of imagery and objects that don’t fit together anywhere else but in your mind. It’s like a static compilation of a series of thoughts in a timeless space and like a dream there is no beginning, middle or end. The black segments are almost like a reverse frame that obscure the rest of the image giving it a thoroughly enigmatic feeling. This time I don’t think we are being toyed with or questioned, we are just being shown surreal images and textures and given an unquantifiable feeling or perhaps a snapshot of a dream-like state that can’t be lucidly transcribed, only shown.

This guy is Valtiel who is basically Silent Hill 3’s Pyramid Head who. in the game world, is often depicted in many instances in the background or, more aptly, as part of the background. As for what he represents it is, of course, subjective but it’s hard to ignore his centrality as a construct of Heather’s Elseworld. His crude leather epidermis is/was fixed with staples and overall I think this is simply to immediately repulse us but it also hints at agedness; its tired skin/surface is worn and he has a real weathered resilience about him which hints at a kind of suffering. It’s also patched together in a style reminiscent of crude mechanical repairs on old machinery further emphasizing the feeling of age, suffering, repetition and disrepair. I love this image mostly because of its tonal quality which is something I am always attracted to. Between the pure black of the background and the reflective whites that pick out the distressed skin is a range of tones that give Valtiel a real sense of environmental placing and gives the image a sense of spatial awareness. This range of tones, deep shadows and dynamic whites are absolutely perfect for picking out that distinctive, complex leather feel and is done so expertly here it’s hard not to marvel at it as it’s a great example of the right medium for the subject matter.

The main point of the image I think is to show Valtiel as being a part of the world and that he exists as an integral mechanical facet, a cog in the machine if you will.

Masahiro Ito is the perfect example of what I think an Artist should be. Technically his renderings are fantastic and all his work shows a profound understanding of the visual elements and a technical proficiency but he also has a poetry, imagination, intelligence and unique vision. His works have meaning and a reason and they allow the viewer to look into the painting’s layers to unearth a wealth of information. In Ito-san’s works these two things; technical skill and poetry, are combined with something that is of the utmost importance to Art: Enigma.