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Ryuichi Sakamoto | Seeing Sound, Hearing Time: A Journey into the Art of Sound and Time

2024.12.27

#ART

坂本龍一×岩井俊雄『Music Plays Images X Images Play Music』(1996-97 / 2024)

Step into the world of Ryuichi Sakamoto, one of Japan’s most influential musicians, in the exhibition Ryuichi Sakamoto | Seeing Sound, Hearing Time at the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art. This marks the first large-scale exhibition in Japan since his passing in 2023, offering a rare glimpse into his artistic journey. The exhibit showcases a collection of his collaborations with both Japanese and international artists, along with newly created works made specifically for this event.

However, don’t expect to hear iconic pieces like “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” or tracks from YMO. Instead, this exhibition challenges your expectations, offering not beautifully crafted “music” but rather, a stoic exploration of “sound.” Through each installation, you’ll encounter Sakamoto’s deep conviction and dedication to his thematic exploration—captured in the exhibition’s title itself: Seeing Sound, Hearing Time.

Set across multiple spaces, from the first floor to the underground galleries and outdoor areas, the exhibition invites you to dive as deep as you wish. Whether you spend a quick 30 minutes or lose yourself for hours, this is an experience that will resonate with you long after you leave. And perhaps, if you visit at the right pace, you may find a connection that lasts a lifetime.

Let’s explore some of the standout works that make this exhibition truly unforgettable.

Entrance of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo

Enhance Your Experience by Reading the Captions

For a more rewarding experience, I personally recommend taking the time to read the explanatory panels displayed near each artwork. It’s helpful to read them before entering the art space, then engage with the work, and perhaps revisit the panels afterward. Because the works are so pure, it’s crucial to understand “what is being presented and in what context” beforehand. Without this foundation, the pieces may seem unnecessarily complex, which would be a missed opportunity. Is it embarrassing to read the detailed descriptions like a novice? Absolutely not—just like carrying an oxygen tank when diving, reading the explanations is a necessary tool for diving deeper into the experience.

Ryuichi Sakamoto + Shiro Takatani, “TIME TIME” (2024)

The installation TIME TIME, located in the first-floor exhibition space, greets visitors as a new collaboration between Ryuichi Sakamoto and Shiro Takatani (from Dumb Type). Set to Sakamoto’s music, the installation presents visuals that symbolize themes such as “the relationship between water (nature) and humans” and “the concept of time.” Drawing inspiration from works like Natsume Soseki’s Ten Nights of Dreams, the Noh play Kandō, and Zhuangzi’s The Butterfly Dream, the piece introduces the compression of time, followed by the slow, deliberate passage of a shō (Japanese wind instrument) player across three screens. It’s a striking moment—though the player never seems to stop, she doesn’t appear to move at a constant speed either. As I prepared to capture a shot when she reached the nearest screen, she vanished between the screens, and I found myself waiting for quite some time before she reappeared. Was it that the wait made time feel longer? I suddenly became acutely aware of how time can stretch and shrink depending on one’s personal perception.

Transforming Water Droplets into Sound

Ryuichi Sakamoto + Shiro Takatani, “water state 1” (2013)

Similarly, water state 1 by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Shiro Takatani is highly suggestive. At first glance, it’s unclear what exactly is being presented, but it’s a piece where water droplets fall from a ceiling device into a water basin at the center of the exhibition space, with the changes in the ripples converted into sound. The timing of the water droplets’ fall appears to be controlled based on precipitation data from the Kanto region, where the exhibition is being held. If you stay long enough, you can experience the changes in rainfall and the accompanying shifts in lighting.

As you watch the ripples on the water and listen carefully, you can feel the sound waves spreading at exactly the same timing and speed as the ripples. Gradually, the boundary between the ripples in the water and those in your own body becomes unclear. Since the human body is 60% water, perhaps when we perceive sound, our bodies experience something similar to this.

A “Piano Tuned by Nature” Found in the Disaster Zone

IS YOUR TIME by Ryuichi Sakamoto with Shiro Takatani is a work where I highly recommend reading the explanation to understand its meaning. The grand piano, standing between a video of a snowy sky and a water basin, belongs to the Miyagi Prefectural Agricultural High School, which was affected by the tsunami of the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Ryuichi Sakamoto with Shiro Takatani, “IS YOUR TIME” (2017 / 2024)

Sakamoto interpreted this as a “piano tuned by nature” and created the work based on that concept. The piano, which has ceased to be a musical instrument and returned to a “thing,” endures the gaze of the viewer, yet occasionally produces sound. According to the explanation, “The piano, having lost its function and role as a musical instrument, emits sound based on earthquake data from around the world, playing the Earth’s tremors between the sky and the sea (the interstice).” There is a slight sense of surprise when the silence, which one expects to continue, is suddenly broken.

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