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| Dwelling (2003) video still |
Hiraki Sawa is a video artist born in Ishikawa, Japan, but currently lives and works in London. His work seems to forcefully play with interconnected systems of space and time, probably as a result of living between cultures. This idea is evident in his first major film from graduate school, almost as a pensive questioning of the meaning of home.
Dwelling suggests that his London based apartment belongs to what Hegel refers to as the Other, allowing Sawa to augment the cracks between the self that he
was and the self that he
is due to his intercultural entanglement. His work uses domestic narratives that are interrupted by virtual movement, resulting in this spatial dynamic that bridges the gaps between disparate places and points in time.
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| Eight Minutes II (2005) video still |
Realism and fantasy are melded through the thoughtful juxtaposition of stillness and movement, affording a compounded complexity to his work through the percept of time. Sawa exploits motion as the evidence for space-time through the unexpected movement of inanimate objects and through the simple contingency that his aesthetic patterns require a lapse of time for its unfolding (it is a video). In
Going Places Sitting Down, childhood remnants are also displaced among a domestic setting, seemingly showing how memories impact the present and how the present is ingrained in our perception of the past.
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| Going Places Sitting Down (2004) video still |
Realism and fantasy are also melded through the disorientation of subjectivity as perceptual indicators define space. In
Dwelling, global connections seem to be occurring right in our own homes as we realize a cramped London apartment encompasses vast distances, or as our own familiar rhythms and routines become astonishing journeys. Perspectives are manipulated through the scale of miniature objects in such a way that notions of depth become unfamiliar. Sawa’s complex spatial arrangements cause familiar spaces to suddenly feel foreign. And not just figuratively speaking – while our subjectivity is disoriented, we still engage the rich textures of the objects and the impression of film, giving his videos a striking tactile sensation.
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| O (2009) |
In a way, you might say that this tactility lends a physical feeling to time. This is one way Sawa possibly connects the systems of time and space.
Going Places Sitting Down is a video triptych installation piece. Watching these movements through different spaces within each video and as they correlate between videos demonstrates time as both constant and fleeting through both physical and virtual (video) space. This was further enhanced upon realizing the settings for these films are in fact still-photography. I then became aware that the present becomes the immediate past similar to taking a photograph, and that the “proximity” of time is further complicated if the viewer experiences the video on a loop.
This brings me back to the contingency of time necessary for Sawa’s videos to unfold. It can be argued that the present marks a disruption in an otherwise continuous succession of time – and the viewer experiences Sawa's work precisely at this moment…
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| O (2009) video still |
His work inspires mine, particularly as I use the repetitive form of the piano keys in ubiquitous spaces in the canvas. Their displacement disputes the physical laws of reality similar to Sawa's logic-bending juxtapositions. Their musical connotation also allows me to play with more theoretical notions within this pervasive context while granting an opportunity for the viewer to find their own possibilities. I could stretch and say that this musical notion is logically equivalent to Sawa’s artistic medium, both requiring time to transpire. But I think that we are both using respective vehicles for investigating personal changes through time and across cultural space. My new forms work investigates the rhythms that seemingly transcend the space between my 2-dimensional work and my 3-dimensional work. My paintings investigate how I join the surge of cross cultural sources and histories available to my creative processes. In this struggle, I am relieved by work that enables multiple narratives, such as Sawa’s. I too am reminded of the gaps between the self that I was and the self that I am. Watching his videos makes me wonder if displacement is what I have been feeling as I move through different chapters of my life, largely defined by cultural shifts. I don’t actually believe that, but his work still makes me wonder.
His work looks really planned out and that makes his message of contemporary time understandable. The order and pace of the objects makes the message flow with the videos.
ReplyDeleteThis is good work, and I see a real correlation between his choice of visual elements and the objects/subjects in your paintings, especially the books as landscape image. That one reminds me of your "Growling Piano" piece because of the color pallet as well as the overall shape and rhythm. Sawa's work can be surreal at times, which brings another similarity to your paintings.
ReplyDeleteFrom my observation, I see the element of travel as a repeated theme in his work. The multiple means of travel; the horse, airplane, camel that seems to be a constant in his work gives the viewer that sense of possible displacement, or dislocation of the former self, and toward a new possibility. I feel that represents man's often need to relocate into a culture that is very different from their own in the process of living life in modern society. This also relates to the diaspora that is happening in a global economy, as opposed to a regional economy of the industrial era. I would like to see how some of our fellow art students that came from abroad feel about Sawa's work.I really like Sawa's work as it exhibits a real sensitivity and grace toward the aesthetics that bring a deeper contemplative way of seeing the lonely austerity of relocating to an unfamiliar culture and truly feeling like an outsider.
Travel is definitely important to his work, as he juxtaposes multiple distant places in both time and location. I don't necessarily sense the involuntary connotation associated with diaspora, but I agree that there is a deliberate use of austerity in certain films to elicit an unfamiliar feeling within familiar spaces. I had to watch them several times to really understand how they made me feel and what was actually causing those feelings. Very clever. I see how his work appeals to your newest New Forms discussion too Steve, and to multicultural relationships.
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