Part of the Sydney International Art Series, Connect with Everything is Tatsuo Miyajima鈥檚 first major solo exhibition in Australia. One of Japan鈥檚 leading contemporary artists, Miyajima is known for his immersive and technologically-driven sculptures and installations. For this, a Sydney-exclusive exhibition, the practitioner will showcase a series of pivotal and more recent works.
Central to his practice, and visible in the display at from 3 November, are numerical counters that count from 1 to 9 repeatedly using light-emitting diodes (LEDs), then go dark momentarily. For Miyajima, the cyclical repetition of numbers, along with the shift from light to dark, reflect the importance of time. He draws inspiration from Buddhist philosophy, with its exploration of mortality and human cycles of death and renewal. Curated by听MCA听Chief Curator Rachel Kent, who worked closely with Miyajima on his international exhibition Marking Time, this survey exhibition delves into the artist鈥檚 highly experimental, and continuously听growing oeuvre.
A stand-out piece on show听will be Mega Death, a room-scale installation of brilliant, blinking blue LEDs, each representative of human life or energy. A silent, twinkling memorial to the Holocaust, the lights are programmed to switch off at intervals, plunging viewers into complete darkness momentarily, before lighting up and counting once more. Miyajima鈥檚 Mega Death represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 1999. More recent projects will include听Arrow of Time听(Unfinished Life), 2016, an immersive installation comprised of听LED, IC, electric wire and iron components.
Tatsuo Miyajima, Connect with Everything, 3 November 2016 – 5 March 2017, MCA Australia.
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Credits
1. Tatsuo Miyajima, Mega Death, 1999, Installation view at the Japan Pavilion, 48th Venice Biennale. Image courtesy the artist and SCAI THE BATHHOUSE 漏 the artist, Photograph: Shigeo Anzai.
