Art takes to the skies as Sorayama Hajime designs Starlux aircraft

空山基設計星宇航空飛機，藝術翱翔天際

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Metallic gold and silver “robots” are taking to the skies as Japanese artist Sorayama Hajime’s futuristic vision lands on Starlux Airlines’ Airbus A350-1000 fleet.

After three years of development, the airline’s third and fourth A350-1000s are scheduled to enter service later this year, wrapped in Sorayama’s signature liquid-metal aesthetic. At 72.25 meters long, the fuselage is the largest canvas the artist has ever worked on, according to Starlux.

The aircraft reflects Sorayama’s long-standing fascination with metallic surfaces, robotics, and the blurred boundary between organic life and machines. Translating that vision onto a commercial airliner, however, posed significant challenges.

Aviation safety requirements, including lightning-strike limits and the A350-1000’s carbon-fiber fuselage, made a mirror-like finish nearly impossible. To capture the cold, liquid-metal quality of Sorayama’s work, the team refined the aircraft’s color palette through more than a dozen rounds of adjustments.

Conventional solid paint was replaced with high-concentration specialty mica and a multi-layer coating technique. The result is a flowing, liquid-metal sheen that meets safety standards while realizing Sorayama’s vision.

Starlux said the collaboration aligns closely with its forward-looking brand identity, turning Sorayama’s art into something kinetic, a moving form that travels across borders and continents. The partnership took shape after Starlux Chair Chang Kuo-wei (張國煒) visited Sorayama’s Tokyo studio, followed by a meeting at Narita Airport.

Watching aircraft take off and land, Chang settled on a clear creative direction. Gold and silver, the defining colors of Sorayama’s decades-long practice, would dominate the skies.

For Sorayama, personally overseeing the aircraft's transformation marked a milestone in his career. While passengers would not see the exterior once onboard, elements of his visual language have been woven into the cabin, promising a visually striking experience.

Each aircraft carries a distinct metallic identity, one primarily silver with gold accents, the other gold with silver details. Viewed from below, both take on the form of Sorayama’s iconic “Sorayama Shark,” turning the planes into soaring artworks cruising at 35,000 feet.