Spooky Action at a Distance

Overview

The distance between Spooky Action and you is about to get a little smaller. Concrete Playground’s editor Amelia Groom has curated an exhibition of video works from Japanese artists to coincide with the first event for the Ksubi/Kirin Big in Japan initiative.

Artists include Daito Manabe, who seems to be inching ever closer to cyborgism, and Kiiiiiii, who seem to be inching ever closer to exploding in a cloud of cute. Manabe uses his face to give and receive musical electrical impulses, and designs large-scale interactive sound and light installations. In his spare time, he is also a programmer, composer, hacker and DJ.

Kiiiiiii perform songs with names like Hot But Milky Like Hot Milk and Aussie O's Bomb, with the help of hand-clap rhythms, screams and children's instruments. As Amelia found out when they cooked her dinner in Tokyo, they are infatuated with Australia because they're completely obsessed with the Hooley Dooleys, Bananas in Pajamas and the Wiggles.

For something more restrained there’s Yukihiro Taguchi, who works with household objects and everyday materials to create complex performative installations and time-lapse video art. He contrasts the pleasingly familiar with strategic configuration and non-linear time, and the effect is both humorous and dramatic.

Also look out for Ine wo Ueru hito's vacuuming lady,  the vomit, rat, garbage, and explosion antics of the Chimâ†'Pom collective and video works from the anonymous dance ensemble KATHY, who perform to classical music with stockings covering their faces, in a coordinated and creepily doll-like manner. Spooky? Maybe, but distant they ain't.

Dorkbot will be hosting a presentation with Daito Manabe live in the gallery from 5.30pm on Friday December 4. The exhibition opening then goes from 6.30-8pm.

Image:「One day, I meet…」by Ine wo Ueru hito (2007)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=YxdlYFCp5Ic