in the exhibition ‘invisible beauty’, media artist naoko tosa combines cutting-edge technology with traditional japanese culture. transforming the hong kong gallery space into a kaleidoscopic multimedia experience, her video artworks reflect moments that only a high-speed camera with 2000 frames per second can capture. dynamic imagery illustrates sound vibrations passing through colorful fluids, along with other materials, such as dry ice bubbles and ink.
In invisible beauty, naoko tosa captures sound vibrations passing through colorful fluids.
genesis blue, 5min. 4K resolution 2018
in ‘genesis’, tosa explores the origin of all beings by capturing the movement and interaction of japanese ink and dry ice bubbles inside a highly viscous fluid, with which she recreates the fluctuating but alluring moment of life creation itself. born in 1961 in fukuoka, japan, the artist describes her work as a ‘hyper-natural form of art’, which can only be captured with a high-speed camera. luxurious and precious materials such as gold and pearls are used in ‘space flower’ to create a dramatic composition with which tosa pays a tribute to rimpa, a historical school of japanese painting founded in kyoto in the 17th century.
Genesis 2017
絵の具の顔料と一緒にドライアイスをゲル状の液体の中に入れると、流体力学でよく知られているラミナーフロー現象が起こる。その現象をハイスピードカメラで撮影した作品。ドライアイスの気泡が時間とともに予期できない形や動きをするため、通常の定常的なラミナーフローに対して不思議で予期できない絵の具の形状が生成される。２度と同じ現象が起きないこの自然現象の空間に包まれることにより、ZENのメディテーションを体験することができると建仁寺の館長に言われた作品。
Genesis 2017
This video artwork was created utilizing liquid dynamics. When color paints and dry ice are put into gelatinous water, based on the interaction between the dry ice bubbles and color paints, laminar flow, one of the fluid dynamics phenomena, occurs and the phenomenon is shot by a high-speed camera to create this video artwork. As the shape and movement of various dry ice bubbles are dynamic and unexpectable, same form cannot be created again. The head of monks at Kennin-ji Temple, one of the highest ranked Zen temples in Kyoto, once told me, “When surrounded by the moving images of this artwork, people would feel the Zen meditation experience.”