METAL GLUE (Möbius, Sphere, Square, Mirror)

Date:: 2023
Medium:: Inkjet print
Dimensions:: 71.3 × 51.7 cm
Image courtesy of: PATinKyoto Print Art Triennale 2025

Description

METAL GLUE (Möbius, Sphere, Square, Mirror) presents four photographic studies of small objects Ueda fabricates by hand from metal glue, an industrial adhesive that cures into a hard, often reflective mass. The four parenthetical sub-titles index four geometric primitives: a one-sided Möbius band, a sphere, a square, and a mirror surface, each modeled at tabletop scale before being photographed and issued as an inkjet print. The work sits at the centre of Ueda's recurring procedure, in which the sculpture functions as matrix and the photograph as impression, a print logic transposed from carved block and inked paper to handled object and lens. The geometric vocabulary is schematic, recalling the lexicon of mid-century constructivist sculpture while declining its scale and permanence; the mirror element folds the photographic apparatus back into the subject. Reading the four images as a single edition reframes them as a portfolio rather than discrete pictures, consistent with the conceptual frame that secured Ueda's inclusion in the 4th PATinKyoto Print Art Triennale (2025).