Created with the grasp of hands, it began to deteriorate in the midst of formation. What would remain as its traces… 01-Angus (2014)
Created with the grasp of hands, it began to deteriorate in the midst of formation. What would remain as its traces… is an ongoing project that originated from my research in London.
While living in London, I came across with curious objects, artifacts and people at museums, archives, city corners, or dinner parties. I collected the history and stories beneath the surface of things; I searched for concealed connections among them, and drew links between them using my research, memory, and imagination. These perplexing narratives were slowly woven into the work.
Borrowing the style of novels, the work is presented in chapters at exhibitions. Words and storytelling form the primary expression while other media such as sculpture, photographs, moving images and sounds are also used. The work continues to expand in chapters until it comes to an inevitable end, where a book will be created. Unlike exhibitions, the book is independent from any fixed place and time, allowing individual readers to consume the work in their own pace and space.
<01-Angus> is the first chapter of the project, and the first character to appear in the Scape.
Behind a wall covered with ANGUS typography and a framed photograph, there is a darken chamber with a small wooden sculpture placed in the center. The audiences are lead into this chamber where the story of Angus is told by the artist.
The character, Angus, is one personality formed from several entities; a photographer, a God in the Irish mythology, a region in Scotland, a cow breed, a underwater surveyor used in deep sea exploration. The audiences project themselves into Scotland, the North Pole, deep seas, and an invisible or unreachable place while following the rapid changing stories. The story poses questions about relationships between seeing and knowing and being able to believe in existence of the invisible. The work is completed in the mind of the audiences as they construct the story through their own imagination.
©YAMAMOTO Tadasu, Aomori Contemporary Art Centre, Aomori Public University
Listen to the story of Angus