‘Sound, visuals, physical phenomena, mathematical concepts, human behavior and randomness are simultaneously arranged and re-arranged in a single performance work.’
Renowned Japanese electronic music/visual artist Ryoji Ikeda uses scale, light, shade, volume, shadow, electronic sounds, and rhythm to flood the senses. In choreographing vast amounts of digital information, the artist conjures up a transformative environment in which visitors confront data on a scale that defies comprehension, experiencing the infinite.
After attracting critical and popular acclaim, making front-page headlines when he presented test pattern [N°5] at Carriageworks two years ago, Ikeda brings, in an Australian-first, the state-of-the-art film and sound installation superposition.
“Of the many achievements at Carriageworks in recent years, we are especially proud to have introduced Sydney to the mastery of Ryoji Ikeda. His installation two years ago was a high point of contemporary art in this city in recent years,” said Carriageworks Director Lisa Havilah. “Ryoji continues to fascinate audiences globally with his unique interpretations of mathematics, symmetry, design, light and sound. Part installation, part music performance, superposition is a remarkable feat of engineering and artistic ingenuity.”
The 65 minute, multi-media work invites audiences into an immersive space where uncertainty and probability coexist. Using a combination of 10 synchronised video screens, real-time content feeds, digital sound sculptures, and – for the first time in Ikeda’s work – human performers, superposition explores the conceptual world opened up by quantum theory. The two performers complement the wide range of video images. An abstract representation of digital data is created through the combination of sounds and visuals. Sine waves, visualisations of code in black and white, or sometimes primary colours, provoke the audience to question how they digest information in their daily life.
Carriageworks
23 to 26 September, 2015
Sydney
Ryoji Ikeda, superposition, 2015
Photography by Zan Wimberley
