UJINO

Early in his career, UJINO became well-known for creating sound sculptures using electronic products such as decorative truck lighting and electric drills, as well as his appearance in a variety of live performances. His The Rotators project, for example, consists of several performances and installations featuring Rotatorhead, a hybrid DJ turntable/musical box mechanism].

UJINO received his B.A. at Tokyo National University of Fine Art and Music. Growing up in post-war Nerima Tokyo during the late 1960s, UJINO frequented a nearby boulevard to see automobiles coming from Grant Heights, a housing area for US Air Force in the neighborhood. He recalls these days when he discusses the beginning of his artistic “research on the material world”. American culture, automobile and machine industries, and relevant imagery from western culture later became an essential part and influence on the development of UJINO’s artworks.

In the 1990’s, he emerged in Tokyo’s rapidly evolving art scene with a number of sound sculptures such as Love Arm series, assembled from electrical home appliances and decorative lamps used in a “decotra”. “Decotra” is a heavily decorated art truck uniquely developed in Japan. He also appeared in a number of live performances using these sound sculptures.

In 2004, he started The Rotators project as an advanced form of his sound sculptures. The Rotators is an automatic rhythm playing system that consists of motor-driven electric appliances orchestrated by Rotatorhead, a unit of modified DJ turntables and vinyl discs. From hairdryers, blenders to power drills, a variety of electronic appliances are integrated and arranged on a platform such as a dining table, while naked bulbs and home lamps to blink and illuminate the installation in sync with the looped beats. For exhibitions abroad, UJINO collects most of these components from local stores and markets, as they are widely available anywhere in the world after reaching industrial and technological maturity during optimization for mass production. The Rotators series has been widely acclaimed, and led to a number of exhibitions and live performances outside Japan.

One might find the influence of the futurist Luigi Russolo, who invented noise instruments, or Neo-Dadaism, which sought the reality of its time from an industrialized society’s “naturalism.” But when industrialized societies developed, they were inhabited by societies of hysterical mass consumption. Growing up in the midst of such a time in Japan, UJINO combines various products born of his time, constructing a world of “naturalism” in a mass-consumption society. The world keeps changing. Today we are aware of the limits and ends of modern material civilization. UJINO’s work, in which pleasure and criticism co-exist, can be seen as an experiment to extract a vision for creating future art forms through investigations, and reconstructions of the past.

Both national and international exhibitions have showcased UJINO’s work, including ”POP/LIFE” at The Hakone Open-Air Museum, Hakone, Japan (2013), The 1st Kyiv International Biennale of Contemporary Art, Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine (2012), “NJP SUMMER FESTIVAL 21 ROOMS”, Nam June Paik Art Center, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea (2011), “Roppongi Crossing 2010: Can There Be Art?, Mori Art Museum”, Tokyo, Japan (2010), “UJINO AND THE ROTATORS”, Hayward Gallery Project Space, London, UK (2009), “AFTER THE REALITY 2”, Deitch Projects, New York, USA (2008), “THE ROTATORS - Robertson and Phillips”, Western Front, Vancouver, Canada (2007). His work is also a part of the public collections of Artsonje Center, Korea, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo.