Mohri Yuko is an installation artist who recasts reconfigured everyday items to reveal intangible forms of energy such as electricity and magnetism. Orochi (Serpent) AM1485 KHz is part of her Orochi series, started in 2013 and named after the Japanese word for a giant mythical serpent. It consists of a radio receiver and amplifier placed directly on the floor, with an audio cable running from the output of the amplifier. Normally, this cable would connect to speakers, and you would hear the radio. But instead of connecting a speaker, Mohri winds the cable in circles, forming a kind of induction coil. The radio waves are then converted into an electromagnetic field at the center of the coil, where a magnet is suspended by a string, alerting the viewer to the presence of an invisible force. It vibrates and rotates to the live broadcast of a radio tuned to AM 1485 kHz, the frequency of Aomori Broadcasting Corporation, a local radio station in the area.

Mohri remembers reading a book by folk knot and wrapping researcher NUKATA Iwao and learning that employees at a telecommunications company where Nukata had worked would call long bundles of cables orochi. Mohri became intrigued by the way they resembled the shimenawa rope seen in Japanese Shinto rituals and, similar to serpent, were said to possess invisible powers—leading to the creation of this series.

Orochi (Serpent) AM 1485 kHz was on display as part of the 2018 exhibition “Mohri Yuko: Assume That There Is Friction and Resistance.”

Photo: Oyamada Kuniya

　In Kim Changkyum’s artwork, a series of images of the commonplace are projected onto a darkish room featuring an aquarium, with a mirror and furnishings affixed to the walls. Figures appear and disappear−one in front of the mirror, languidly grooming; another in front of the mirror in a bar, looking somewhat troubled−people appearing and disappearing by turns in short vignettes of melancholic existence. Within the room, we overhear casual conversations, nondescript sounds. Figures are cleverly projected onto the wall. The scenes and figures in the mirror and fish in the tank seem real, but just as surely they disappear into the dark again, reminding us that they were only illusions. As real figures and virtual images mingle, the viewer is reminded of the uncertainty of existence.
　Kim is known for his video installations and the way in which they combine projected images and existing objects, one example being his piece using imagery of someone peering down into a water’s surface projected onto a tub on the floor. His are incisive self-portraits of the contemporary human condition.

Photo: Iwasaki Mami

　Jennifer Steinkamp presents a video animation inspired by the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale “Rapunzel.”
　In the story, Rapunzel’s pregnant mother sends her husband to fetch the mountain herb rampion, which he finds blossoming in the garden of the witch who lives next door. The witch, however, discovers the thievery, and the mother is forced to give her daughter to the witch in exchange. The witch locks Rapunzel in a tower, where the only way she can receive visitors is by letting down her hair. The story also serves as a sad portrait of parents sacrificing their children to feed their addictions.
　In the exhibition space, computer-generated images of horrifying but beautiful flowers, and hair, act as motifs for key elements in the tale. The flowers’ movements are supernaturally violent, as if of their own will, yet without being overly specific, allowing viewers to imagine their own stories.
　A teacher in UCLA’s media art department, Steinkamp creates works that marry universal issues of human existence and leading-edge visualization technologies.

Photo: Iwasaki Mami