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October 11, 2015

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Artist makes every second count

FOR over three decades, Japanese artist Tatsuo Miyajima has been exploring the eternity of life and time with works that feature LED number counters as “a metaphor for life and death.”

All counters scroll in order from 9 to 1 and go out for a moment. Then the lights come back, and the countdown restarts from 9 to 1. The numeral 0 never appears.

“That moment of blackness embodies death, leaving viewers in awe,” Miyajima told Shanghai Daily. “Thus they will learn to cherish life.”

He said a personal close escape from death taught him to “respect life and make most use of every second.”

Three of his artistic concepts keep recurring. One is the counting of numbers, which symbolizes an eternal cycle of life and death. One is constant change. And the third is the interconnection of everything.

The 58-year-old artist appeared in Shanghai in September to unveil 39 LED counters he made for a public art project at the future Fosun Art Center on the southern Bund. Designed by British architect Thomas Heatherwick, the center is designed in the shape of an ancient Chinese emperor’s crown. According to the blueprint of the Bund Finance Center, it lies amid skyscrapers, luxury hotels and shopping malls. The venue is set to open in late 2016.

To follow his ideas of “getting connected with everything,” Miyajima will display his work “Counter Sky Garden” over the floor of the center’s rooftop garden.

“It will better blend the work with the architecture and surroundings,” he said. “The rooftop is closest to the sky dome and thus connected with the universe.”

Miyajima said he plans to invite 300 Shanghai residents to join him on the artwork project so that it “gets connected with viewers.” He added, “it is the artist’s responsibility to involve more people in art.”

When finished, the project will comprise 300 LED counters embedded in charcoal grey marble, each with an individual design.

“Every LED light represents a person, leaping to its own beat — some hectic, some slower,” he explained. “Everyone has his or her own beat. It differs among Shanghai people, and also differs among cities.”

The artist said Shanghai has a much faster pace than it did 20 years ago when he first visited the city, but it’s not as fast as his hometown Tokyo.

If represented in the leaps of LED lights, “the beat of Tokyo would be formed in a line,” he said.

Recruitment of public participants for the project has been published in the Bund Finance Center’s WeChat account. Anyone who lives or works in Shanghai can sign up. Miyajima said he wants his 300 “co-artists” to come from diverse ages, backgrounds, jobs and nationalities.

“The number 300 means all walks of life, the whole world, even the universe,” said Miyajima, an avowed Buddhist.

“In Buddhism, there are three worlds, three views and three lives. The number 100 often refers to totality or infinity, such as a hundred worlds, a hundred fortunes and the ‘Treatise in a Hundred Verses’ (or Sata sastra in Sanskrit) by Aryadeva.”

The LED lights will scroll in the order of green, blue, red, yellow and white, symbolizing the five elements of earth, water, fire, wind and emptiness.

“Emptiness, or sunya in Sanskrit, has two meanings,” Miyajima said. “One is nothing; the other is infinity, implying mega power.”

The artist said he was “inspired by the skyline and architectural complexity of the Bund” when he stood on the art center’s rooftop.

“Shanghai is an international metropolis where East meets West and history and modernity juxtapose,” he said. “The diversified population leads to the beauty of co-existence, which becomes Shanghai’s unique charisma.”

Widely considered the frontrunner of Japan’s post-Mono-ha school of art, Miyajima rose to fame in 1988 at the Venice Biennale with his “Sea of Time,” a LED light installation. Learning after his masters, who were devoted to presenting the true nature and beauty of objects, Miyajima prefers to present works in modern media and Western art forms.

Wu Yang, CEO of the Bund Finance Center, said he was “deeply impressed” by Miyajima’s signature “Counter Void,” which he saw when he visited Tokyo about 10 years ago. Set atop the Mori Building at Roppongi Hills, with a 360-degree bird’s-eye view of the capital, the artwork comprises six LED counters, each measuring 3.2 meters in height.

The counters change by day and night. During daytime, they display digital counters in neon lights. When night falls, the background is lit up and the counters start scrolling in black digits against the white screen.

Miyajima immediately came into Wu’s mind when he was thinking about what to do with the rooftop of the art center.

“Digits are a universal language,” he said. “Despite our different languages and cultural backgrounds, we have a common understanding of numbers from zero to infinity. With digits, Miyajima manages to connect all kinds of people, which tallies with the character of the Bund — very inclusive.”




 

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