Isuzu Space Station
Isuzu Space Station Children’s Plaza
Isuzu Corporation - 1989

Isuzu Space Station - Isuzu Corporation - Children's Plaza for the Yokohama Railway Station - Yokohama, Japan - 1989 - Detail of inverted, cast-from-life people in the community, assembled as a work of public sculpture
Isuzu Motors and Japan Railway sponsored this children’s plaza in front of the Yokohama’s Sakuragicho Train Station. The project was commissioned to celebrate the links between people, ground transportation and space exploration. Since venturing into the cosmos is closely associated with an absence of gravity, the plaza plane supports an inverted world of people and Isuzu vehicles. To achieve this effect, the lower bodies and legs of a large number of Yokohama residents have been cast from life in fiberglass, then installed in a reversed position. The intention is to create the illusion of an invisible walking surface, suspended above the actual plaza level. In order to enhance this surreal dimension, all of the human figures, automobiles, bicycles, street furniture and tree roots are monochrome gray to match the color of the paving.

Isuzu Space Station - Isuzu Corporation - Children's Plaza for the Yokohama Railway Station - Yokohama, Japan - 1989 - Overview of the main plaza area with inverted, monochrome, cast-from-life people and objects

Isuzu Space Station - Isuzu Corporation - Children's Plaza for the Yokohama Railway Station - Yokohama, Japan - 1989 - Views of the people casting process and inverted vehicles in the plaza

Isuzu Space Station - Isuzu Corporation - Children's Plaza for the Yokohama Railway Station - Yokohama, Japan - 1989 - Children playing in the inverted plaza

Isuzu Space Station - Isuzu Corporation - Children's Plaza for the Yokohama Railway Station - Yokohama, Japan - 1989 - Inverted monochrome automobile and motor scooter