Voluta - Camden Art Centre

Following her residency at Camden Art Centre in 2016, Yuko Mohri returned with a new installation.

The exhibition orchestrated relations between electromagnetic force-fields, patterns of light moving through water and a reconfigured Yamaha reed organ from 1934. Developed responsively to the architecture and surrounding environment of the galleries, Mohri’s audio-spatial composition revealed the interconnectedness of man-made and natural processes, inviting non-human agents and chance factors to determine the score.

In this new commission, error, improvisation and feedback figured into an acoustic environment that mapped shifting relationships between material things and conceptual propositions. Music and sound are central to Mohri’s practice. Her involvement with the experimental music scene in Japan included collaborations with Otomo Yoshihide and the internationally acclaimed composer, pianist and electronic musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. As part of Voluta, sound art pioneer Akio Suzuki performed live in the gallery.

Images Artist Film Related Events The Artist

Thursday 05 July (2018)
Artists Peter Fraser and Yuko Mohri discussed their exhibitions with writer and critic Chris Fite-Wassilak.

Peter Fraser
(b. 1953, Cardiff, UK) graduated in photography from Manchester Polytechnic University in 1976. In 1982, Fraser began working with a Plaubel Makina camera, which led to an exhibition with William Eggleston at the Arnolfini, Bristol, in 1984. In that year Fraser went on to spend time living and working with Eggleston in the States. Recent solo shows include The Photographers’ Gallery, London (2002); Brancolini Grimaldi, London (2012); Tate St Ives (2013); Real Jardin de Botanico, Madrid (2017). In 2004, he was shortlisted for the Citibank Photography Prize.

Chris Fite-Wassilak is a writer and critic based in London. He is a regular contributor to Apollo, Art Monthly, Art Papers, ArtReview and frieze; his writing has also appeared in Art & Australia, Artforum.com, Flash Art, Monopol, Rhizome and Tate Etc. He is a contributing editor of ArtReview, and co-organiser with artist Anne Tallentire of the event ‘hmn’. His short book of essays, Ha-Ha Crystal (2016) is published by Copy Press.

Performance: Akio Suzuki and Yuko Mohri

07 July (2018)
To coincide with Yuko Mohri’s exhibition at Camden Art Centre, a performance with Japanese sound art pioneer Akio Suzuki was presented in Mohri’s installation. The performance took inspiration from Mohri’s background in music and long-standing engagement with the experimental music scene in Japan.

Since the 1960s, sound art pioneer Akio Suzuki has been investigating the acoustic quality of selected locations and creating corresponding topographies. His intensive involvement with the phenomena of pulse and echo led him to develop his own instruments in the 1970s. One of these is the spiral echo instrument Analapos. It consists of a coil spring and two iron cylinders that function as resonating chambers, and is played with the voice or by hand. Starting from the 90s, his soundwalk project, oto-date, which means, respectively, “sound” and “point” in Japanese, finds listening points in the city, and playfully invites the audience to stop and listen carefully at given points on the map. Suzuki has been also active in the improvised music scenes in different continents, and has collaborated with Takehisa Kosugi, Derek Bailey, Steve Lacy, George Lewis, David Toop, Aki Onda, Rie Nakajima, and John Butcher.

Video stills ©Helen Petts

This event was programmed with 33:33 and formed part of MODE – a programme of music, visual art, performance and film curated by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

In partnership with Japan Foundation.

Live: Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yuko Mohri

08 September (2018)
A rare performance by the internationally acclaimed composer, pianist and electronic music pioneer Ryuichi Sakamoto in collaboration with artist Yuko Mohri.

Responding to Mohri’s site-specific exhibition Voluta at Camden Art Centre, Sakamoto’s
performance took the form of an experimental piano concert amongst Mohri’s installation. Using
a reconfigured antique piano, the performance was inspired by references in Mohri’s work, John Cage
and Nam June Paik.

Sakamoto’s work has spanned vast musical territories, from pioneering electronic music as a member
of Yellow Magic Orchestra, to crafting globally-inspired rock albums, classical compositions, a
stretch of minimal/ambient music collaborations and over thirty film scores including a collaborative
score with Alva Noto for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Academy Award-winning The Revenant, and Yoji
Yamada’s Nagasaki: Memories Of My Son.

Music and sound are central to Mohri’s artistic practice, her involvement with the experimental music
scene in Japan has included previous performances with avant-garde musicians Otomo Yoshihide
and Sakamoto.

This event was programmed with 33:33 and formed part of MODE – a programme of music, visual
art, performance and film curated by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

With special thanks to Norika Sora, Keiko Yoshida and Nayo Higashide.

The Artist

Yuko Mohri (b. 1980, Kanagawa, Japan) is an artist whose installations detect invisible and intangible forces such as magnetism, gravity and light. In 2015, Mohri received a grant from the Asian Cultural Council for a residency in New York. She has participated in a number of exhibitions both in Japan and abroad, including the 14th Biennale de Lyon 2017 (France), Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016 (India) and the Yokohama Triennale 2014. Mohri was the Grand Prix winner of the Nissan Art Award 2015 and was also the recipient of Culture and Future Prize at the 65th Kanagawa Cultural Award in 2016 and the New Artist Award at the 67th Japanese Ministry of Education Award for Fine Arts in 2017.