Toying with his robots

The art of Keisuke Kishi encompasses a world of strange and exotic looking 'robots' - and, although they don't actually move, they are nonetheless beguiling, delightful and beautifully crafted.

The robots, as Kishi insists on calling them, resemble elaborate 19th-century mechanical toys. They also employ lots of traditional Japanese imagery: fierce dragons, mutant fish, spindly spiders with humanoid faces, tiny tableaux of surreal grocery stores, bizarre puppet theatres, ancient gods and Samurai warriors.

You feel the artist must spend a lifetime picking through discarded scraps from scrapyards, skips and toy shops in order to assemble such out-of-the-world creations from apparently humble materials.

One of his most fantastical creations is Kanemitsu - The Lamp Seller. A grinning, bespeckled toy head sits atop a kind of robotic ribcage connected to long, spidery limbs on which the hinges are beautifully and elaborately bolted together.

Above the figure's baseball-capped head is a kind of wheel, intricately carved from wood, from which hang tiny trinkets decorated with Japanese script and dozens of tiny lanterns. It's a ridiculous and absurdly over-thetop assemblage, but this is part of its Heath Robinson-like charm.

Other creations have a slightly disturbing edge. Spider Sally, for instance, who wears a shocking pink gown, is instantly transformed in another configuration into a bulbous-bodied spider with fragile spoke-like wings. Her grinning, angular face might give younger children bad dreams.

Until May 22, gallery@oxo, Oxo Tower Wharf, Bargehouse Street, SE1, daily 11am to 6pm, free. Tel: 020 7401 2255. Tube: Blackfriars/Waterloo