SingartA Quenching Japanese Psyche
TeamLab made an indelible impression on visitors to the 2013 Singapore Biennale with their interactive “Peace Can Be Realized Even Without Order” installation, which was inspired by the Awa Dance festival; one that is very entrenched in the ancient psyche of Japan.
The never ending stream who had visited the Singapore Art Museum were bowed over when the seemingly endless maze of 56 translucent holograms of dancing people dressed in brightly coloured traditional Japanese clothes stopped gyrating to wave or bow when they walked up close to get a better look at the fabulous costumes adorning the projected moving images.
For all these awe-struck individuals I have great news: this Japanese group of ultra-technologists is currently exhibiting yet another equally impressive computer-simulated artwork at Art Ikkan Gallery: “Universe of Water Particles” features at center stage a magnificent digital waterfall cascading down the ruggedly edged face of a momentous cliff that has seen the eternal dawning of time.
Given the long history permeating through the team’s homeland, it comes as no great surprise that the birth of this masterpiece stems from the decision this artistic unit of programmers, mathematicians, architects, CG animators, graphic designers, artists and editors made to yet again draw infinite inspiration from ancient cultural concepts that cascade insidiously through their blessed land of the rising sun.
TeamLab’s fountain of inspiration taps the Zen-like Japanese concept of continually looking at, living in and breathing into the precious space and the persistent passing of time within the chosen environment. This eternal ideal has been emboldened into a time-honored art form – the almost primordial Japanese painting.
In this tradition-bound style of Asian art, artists in Japan have, since time memorial, patiently expressed the azure blue oceans and crystal clear rivers surrounding and running through their beloved country as bodies of pure water with curvilinear series of fluid lines.
This magically breathes into these waters the quintessential impression of bountifully treasured life – the waters themselves become transformed into living, breathing mystical creatures; a natural integral extension of a world that their country men have always perceived as a naturally living entity.
“Universe of Water Particles” is, therefore, a modern extension of this timeless concept: miniscule water particles have been brought into insistent existence in a hyper-realistic virtual 3D environment to better express the persistent material nature of water in an extremely extended continuum of particles that flow ever so freely and gleefully to the tune laid down by the unchangeable universal laws of physics.
By so doing, TeamLab succeeds in tearing away the apparent indivisible barrier between the artist’s dichotomy of subject and object, as well as us and the entity we observe; all the while immersing us into the fabric of what vitally constitutes the essence of the much treasured antediluvian Japanese psyche.
Quench your thirst: abundantly drink your fill from TeamLab’s cascading waterfall at Ikkan Art Gallery, at 39 Keppel Road, #01-05 Artspace@ Helutrans, Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore 089065. This ultra Zen experience ends on 26 April this year.
Photo credit: Ikkan Art Gallery
