What’s right? What’s wrong? Is the sacrifice of an individual worthwhile if it benefits the many?

Using Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai as a common cultural reference point, Japan-born Melbourne street artist TwoOne explores these questions at the exhibition of the same name at Collingwood’s Backwoods Gallery from Friday 14 to Sunday 30 September.

Seven Samurai is one of the most influential films of all time, with a major impact on American films in particular – from obvious tributes like the 1960s western The Magnificent Seven, which was a remake in everything but name and setting, to George Lucas paying homage to its dialogue and shot composition across his Star Wars saga.

The film continues to inspire nearly 60 years after its release, with TwoOne again drawing on Kurosawa’s 1954 masterpiece for his first solo exhibition of 2012.
Each of the seven large works in this new collection is an exploration of the psyche of the film’s seven protagonists, approaching the heroes not as warriors, but rather culturally-significant character archetypes. These archetypes represent enduring perceptions of authoritarian figures in traditional Japanese society,
and TwoOne’s analysis looks at them with contemporary insight.

TwoOne aims to bring both western and eastern philosophy together in his character portrayals, which are based on his own psychoanalysis of each of the samurai while at the same time drawing visual reference from the physical energy of Bushido and judo.

“Within us all there is a battle,” TwoOne says. “The form of fighting and the ferocity is what defines us.”