“Given” is an installation that evokes a space that does not physically exist through the interplay of walls and sound.

I wondered whether playing reverberant sounds from behind a wall might evoke the presence of a space that does not physically exist. In the work, three walls are erected within a confined space, each emitting sounds recorded in a variety of different environments.

Drawing on the Buddhist concept of the three times, the walls are associated with the past, present, and future, while the space they enclose is conceived as a well—a place that belongs nowhere.

Like the music of Noh and gagaku, the sounds from the walls sometimes exist independently, drifting out of sync with one another, and at other times merge into a single whole.

The title references the context of Marcel Duchamp’s final work Étant donnés (Given), which blurs the boundary between two dimensions (a hole in the wall) and three dimensions (a physical interior).

The work focuses on the moment when a two-dimensional opening in a wall invites the presence of an interior spatiality beyond it.

At the same time, the installation draws on the structure of the Japanese tea house described as “a mountain dwelling within the city,” a space detached from the outside world. Like the faint sound of water heard beyond a shoji screen, it creates the sensation that another dimension lies hidden within a closed environment.

As viewers move through the installation, oscillating between vision and hearing, shifts in their bodily position and in the perceived location of sound gradually detach them from ordinary reality, producing a singular spatial experience. 

In collaboration with : Resonac Holdings Corporation
Supported by : METI Program ART X JAPAN CONTEXT