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EXHIBITION OCTOBER 27, 2006—FEBRUARY 4, 2007
Haunted House, 2003
Video installation, 4’ (looped)
A beam of light moving across a small dark room in a
180-degree arc gradually reveals an urban landscape
to the tune of electronic music playing in the background.
The viewer, placed in the position of a voyeur,
looks into the windows of buildings and observes
everyday situations: a young girl in front of her
computer screen, a family having dinner, a woman
hanging up the laundry to dry. These scenes, however,
quickly become disturbing and transform into tabloid
anecdotes.
“The media enters almost naturally into my environment
on a daily basis, even when I don’t necessarily
want to pay it any special attention. It is a basic part
of my life, in exactly the same way as activities like
eating and sleeping. Once events have been filtered
by the media, they are turned into simple news items
and stripped of any emotive charge. We receive them
as such, even though they’re very serious incidents
that would be extraordinarily upsetting if they were
to happen to anyone we knew personally. This same
process also happens with me; even though I exist
here and now, the news items create a sense of unreality
in me that I find very strange. My works consist
of this sense of strangeness conveyed in various ways.
I’m neither trying to describe the world as it exists,
nor am I attempting to trigger a particular psychological
response in the viewer. I simply wish to express
the ‘me’ that appears in the mirror of the media.”
Passage from an interview with the artist
published in the exhibition catalogue.
Small Gallery
midnight sea, 2006
Video installation, 4’ (looped)
By setting up a micro-structure inside the exhibition
space, Tabaimo creates an environment that is both
mental and physical for midnight sea. Stylized wave
motifs, undulating movements, and the sounds of
surf and water are interwoven into a black-andwhite
seascape. The artist invites visitors to “go with
the flow” of this dreamlike reverie whose purified
aesthetic is sown with traditional references.
“The sea uses the meaningful movement of its waves
to conceal the depths of its transparent waters. It stirs
up these mysterious, elusive undulations, like living
creatures, to display them before our eyes, increasing
our fascination for its abyss.
Waves are sometimes compared to wrinkles on the
skin, and vice versa, which seems to act as proof of a
close relationship between these two words. [The]
age-old Japanese tradition of linking the human body
to the sea is deeply ingrained in my consciousness.”
Passages from the exhibition catalogue.