INDEX
A Monumental Work Reflecting Sakamoto’s async
Upon entering the underground second-floor exhibition space, I would like to highlight once again the collaboration with Shiro Takatani. async-immersion tokyo, featuring a massive 18-meter-wide LED wall, is a work from the same lineage as async-drowning, which was presented at the 2017 exhibition Ryuichi Sakamoto | async: Installation Music. Yuko Namba, the guest curator of this exhibition, reflects on the experience in her essay, noting, “Many visitors, upon entering the exhibition space, stayed for a long time, experiencing it as if they were listening to an entire album in deep focus.” In fact, I felt that there were particularly many people deeply engrossed in this work.
Set to the music from Sakamoto’s experimental album async, the video by Takatani unfolds. The landscapes on the screen gradually reduce to lines, pixel by pixel, almost as if the threads of a tapestry are unraveling. Eventually, everything transforms into a world of horizontal lines resembling another dimension. After this, new landscapes slowly “weave” into place. Whether you begin watching from the start or the end depends on when you enter the exhibition space, but the more stimulating experience may be witnessing everything “unraveling” helplessly. Sitting on the bench in front of the screen, you’ll feel the lines of dissolution gradually approach from one side toward your feet. There’s a sense of fear that you might lose what keeps you tethered to this moment and lose your shape entirely. The sensation of “melting” when the line finally passes is something you should experience for yourself.
