7th Art Division Critiques

[Critique by work category] Installations

We received a number of excellent media artworks by artists of the younger generation from here and abroad. However, it seemed to us that the differences among these works largely depended on the quality of the recorded images. In particular, with spatial expressions of installations, interactions between the human body and a space are only possible when you are actually at the site of an installation. However, under the present conditions, we have no other choice but to evaluate installations according to how clearly and objectively the recorded image of an installation presents the space from another person's point of view. All entries were superior in terms of interactivity as well. However, considering that they were submitted to the installation division, they must have a primary focus on spatial expressions and concepts behind them. In Venus Villosa which won the prize for excellence, touching the interface that symbolizes a woman's breast makes the body hair of a woman, which is supposed to be pretty by nature, start growing. This is a work with emphasis on a gender issue, highlighting the essential relationships between primitiveness and sexuality. In the Jury recommended work, "Is this material correct?", both real and artificial flowers arranged in vases filled with blue ink are put on view on the Internet, and water of only those flowers that received the most frequent access is changed. It reveals the truth of digital media in the context of a contrast between real flowers withering with time and ever-fresh artificial flowers. On the whole, there were many works that by converting forms to analogue forms, treated space as a device to recover physical existence or pursued existence in a digital space.

Profile
MIKAMI Seiko
Artist / Assistant Professor of Tama Art University
Born in 1961, MIKAMI is an artist and a professor in the Art and Media Course at Tama Art University. She has been producing large-scale installations that deal with the information society and the human body since 1984. Since the '90s she has focused on interactive works that make use of vision, hearing, gravity, and other sensory interfaces. Her recent installations have regularly gone on tour to over ten countries.
( 2012 )