Current
The Voice of Inconstant Savage
[Commissioned Work]
This multifaceted, polyphonic and immersive sound installation by Yasuhiro Morinaga establishes a historical encounter between Portuguese culture and Japan, memories and myths that remain and coexist with other cultures of the Amazon.
Commissioned for the Engawa – Japanese Contemporary Art Season programme , The Voice of Inconstant (2023) is an immersive installation that superimposes a prayer inspired by the story of a 16th-century Portuguese missionary, a chant from a Kakure-Kirishitan (hidden Christians) prayer – a religion rooted in Nagasaki Prefecture –, a chant from the Karawara spirits of the Awá indigenous people – who live in the Amazon rainforest – and a chorus of Western Gregorian chant. Morinaga questions the position of the aesthetics of inconstancy in relation to the discourse of the “savage” that modern society confronts.
Field recordings
Sombat Simla: Master Of Bamboo Mouth Organ
Simla is known in Thailand as one of the greatest living players of the khene, the ancient bamboo mouth organ particularly associated with Laos but found throughout East and Southeast Asia. His virtuosic and endlessly inventive renditions of traditional and popular songs have earned him the title ‘the god of khene’, and he is known for his innovative techniques and ability to mimic other instruments and non-musical sound, including, as a writer for the Bangkok Post describes, ‘the sound of a train journey, complete with traffic crossings and the call of barbecue chicken vendors’.
Cinema
大和(カリフォルニア)
SAKURA is a moody teenage girl who lives close to the US military base in the city of Yamato, Japan. She is struggling everyday to become a rapper like the American rappers she admire but always got stage frighten when she sang in front of an audience. One day, her mother's American soldier boyfriend's daughter REI comes from California to visit her family.
Installation
極地都市
「写真都市展 −ウィリアム・クラインと22世紀を生きる写真家たち−」では、石川直樹との共作「極北都市」をテーマにした写真と音響のインスタレーションを発表します。地球を宇宙へ導く麗しい「惑星の光と声」をテーマに、地球という一つの惑星の、各都市の騒めきを写真とフィールドレコーディングの音像でダイナミックに表現します。
Installation
Sony at Milano Salone
ソニーが提案するホームプロダクツの新たなデザインコンセプト、モノリシックデザインを核に、その世界観を発展させて生まれたアーキタイプ(原型)をミラノ国際家具見本市、ミラノサローネで展示します。シンプルで美しいデザインを訴求したモノリシックデザインの根底にある「物事の本質を追求する」というコンセプトは、空間における製品の佇まいだけでなく、生活空間におけるホームエンタテインメントのあり方をも変えていく可能性を秘めています。「光」「音」「映像」を融合させて生まれた実験的な展示を通じて、生活空間における新たな可能性を提案します。