Ujino
Body of Revolution
01 Nov - 22 Dec 2016
UJINO
Body of Revolution
1 November – 22 December 2016
For his third solo exhibition at PSM, the Tokyo-based mixed media artist UJINO will present a new installation-performance that produces a polyphonic spree from the movement and sound inherent in mechanical objects.
UJINO transforms everyday objects—such as bicycles, blenders, and guitars—into symphonic and kinetic installation-performances. By prompting their movement through homemade circuit boards and MIDI controllers, the objects take on a life of their own through UJINO’s orchestration. The rhythms produced by the object’s mechanical action sounds like electronic music of a sort— no surprise given the artist’s background with Japanese Noise Music, a sound movement from the eighties rooted in John Cage and Fluxus. UJINO’s work is also closely connected to Marcel Duchamp and Jean Tinguely, who sought to examine the (over)production of consumer goods—a key outcome of Modernity—and question the nature of the art object. But UJINO’s work is not a rejection of retinal art; indeed, it is fun and interesting to look at, in much the way Tom Sachs’s work is, and it is energizing to listen to as well.
For Body of Revolution, UJINO takes the familiar items that he has used throughout much of his work and turns them into a temporary filmic, kinetic, and acoustic ensemble. An orbital sander moves unpredictably on a table; windshield wipers sway from a guitar, like a crude retrograde robot; and a fan filters a huge spotlight, giving the space a theatrical atmosphere. A spy camera feeds the internal action of a blender onto the gallery wall, a filmic perspective on the “life” of an object; and the simple movement of a spring and rotor animate what was once considered revolutionary. Together, these sculptural objects create a single unit, an installation-performance, where the viewer is enveloped in UJINO’s interpretation and investigation of the commonplace products that were once innovative and that transformed our world.
Body of Revolution
1 November – 22 December 2016
For his third solo exhibition at PSM, the Tokyo-based mixed media artist UJINO will present a new installation-performance that produces a polyphonic spree from the movement and sound inherent in mechanical objects.
UJINO transforms everyday objects—such as bicycles, blenders, and guitars—into symphonic and kinetic installation-performances. By prompting their movement through homemade circuit boards and MIDI controllers, the objects take on a life of their own through UJINO’s orchestration. The rhythms produced by the object’s mechanical action sounds like electronic music of a sort— no surprise given the artist’s background with Japanese Noise Music, a sound movement from the eighties rooted in John Cage and Fluxus. UJINO’s work is also closely connected to Marcel Duchamp and Jean Tinguely, who sought to examine the (over)production of consumer goods—a key outcome of Modernity—and question the nature of the art object. But UJINO’s work is not a rejection of retinal art; indeed, it is fun and interesting to look at, in much the way Tom Sachs’s work is, and it is energizing to listen to as well.
For Body of Revolution, UJINO takes the familiar items that he has used throughout much of his work and turns them into a temporary filmic, kinetic, and acoustic ensemble. An orbital sander moves unpredictably on a table; windshield wipers sway from a guitar, like a crude retrograde robot; and a fan filters a huge spotlight, giving the space a theatrical atmosphere. A spy camera feeds the internal action of a blender onto the gallery wall, a filmic perspective on the “life” of an object; and the simple movement of a spring and rotor animate what was once considered revolutionary. Together, these sculptural objects create a single unit, an installation-performance, where the viewer is enveloped in UJINO’s interpretation and investigation of the commonplace products that were once innovative and that transformed our world.