The Milky Way series by Mihoko Ogaki, an artist based in Toride, Japan, works around the ideas of life and death, rebirth and mysticism, emotions and decay by rendering human “corpses” that project otherworldly brilliance. The human forms, created out of Fibre-reinforced plastic, are mysteriously held together with beaming, bright LEDs that project fields of light resembling stars in the surrounding space.

These beautiful sculptural installations precisely capture what truly gives us life: the brilliance from within, in other words, our emotional life. Constanze Friederike Rabanus, a German critic, says “The artist tries to turn her inner self outwards in order to uncover emotions. Her sculptures communicate this state by the use of light and light reflecting materials.” The title of the series aptly captures the essence of her intent with the work. Ogaki is in fact creating a cluster of light, a personal Milky Way, that strikingly encapsulates the inner life of the body that emits it.

Photos by Seiji Makuuchi