TATSUO MIYAJIMA

Tatsuo Miyajima is concerned with fundamental questions of time, space, and existence. A significant part of his multifaceted oeuvre comprises works featuring digital light-emit-ting diodes (LEDs), specially developed by the artist and manufactured for him, whose numerals light up in continuous and repetitive cycles from 1 to 9. For Miyajima, these numerals represent the path from life to death, the finality of which is symbolised by the ‘0’ or zero, which therefore never appears in his works.

For the exhibition Unstable, Tatsuo Miyajima presents works from two new LED-based series of works: Unstable Time and HITEN.

Miyajima uses nylon fabric for the first time as support ground for a newly developed version of his LED-gadgets. The single-colour ‘LED gadgets’ are affixed to fabric in a spiral or circular fashion and count in various rhythms. The instability and softness of the fabric, hung freely on the wall, references the impossibility of being able to fully control the world and adds an element of ‘instability’ to the work that oscillates dialectically between uncontrollability and freedom. Time and the universe are not fixed or absolute, but something gently flowing and malleable. The only thing we can do when confronted with such an uncontrollable world is to face the various phenomena with our imagination.

‘Keep changing’, ‘connect with everything’, and ‘continue forever’ are the three conceptual underpinnings of Tatsuo Miyajima’s multifaceted work. The new works from the HITEN series explore these guiding principles with minimalist precision. LEDs are arranged on small, wall-mounted consoles and change colour after each countdown cycle. Tatsuo Miyajima sees this as a reference to reincarnation in Buddhism (Samsara); Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of eternal return (Ewige Wiederkehr) also comes to mind here. The work’s title, ‘Hiten’, is a reference to a painted angel inside the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, China. This angel, donning a vibrantly coloured vestment, flies freely in the sky without being controlled by anyone.

The cyclical nature of Tatsuo Miyajima’s work, the constant change that underlies it, invites viewers to reflect and meditate on the ‘impermanence’ or transitoriness of all being.

‘New technologies coexist naturally with old traditions in my everyday life,’ Tatsuo Miyajima says of the origins of his complex triple jump between Far Eastern philosophy, technology, and contemporary theory. The artist’s latest works applies this research into essential concepts to the instability of contemporary reality. In a world increasingly dominated by numbers and counting, Tatsuo Miyajima’s existential examination of time and numbers is stirringly relevant.

Important works by the artist are represented in the collections of the Tate Gallery London, the Bayerischen Staatsgemäldesammlung Munich, La Caixa Barcelona, Deste Foundation Athens, the Museum of Contemporary ArtChicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Leeum Seoul, Kunstmuseum Bern, and M+ in Hong Kong.

In the last three years, solo exhibitions have been held at the Minsheng Museum in Shanghai, the Chiba City Museum in Chiba, Japan, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California, and the EMMA Museum in Espoo, Finland. The artist’s body of drawings is currently on view in an exhibition at the Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg.

For more information on the artist or images of his work, please feel free to contact the gallery at any time.