Year: 2018
Medium: four-channel digital work, continuous Loop
Dimensions: 121.4 x 274 cm (47 3/4 x 107 7/8 in.) overall
Acquired from Pace Gallery, 2022
This artwork is created in accordance with a flat drawing method that differs from the Western drawing perspective, which teamLab defines as “Ultrasubjective Space”. In the perspective composition, which is based on observing from a fixed viewpoint, the space converges towards a vanishing point that exists at the back of the painting. In other words, the painting neglects the actual expansiveness of space and instead converges upon a narrow space, creating an illusion of spatial depth. In contrast, teamLab's works inherit a different spatiality seen in much of East Asian art, rather than following the Western perspective. While Western paintings carry a sense of direction that moves towards the back or the front, East Asian art, especially Japanese scroll paintings, emphasize space and time based on a scrolling and horizontally moving viewpoint. For instance, the spatial representation of “fukinuki yatai” as seen in scroll paintings, is often explained theoretically as oblique or axial projection. However, because there is no distortion towards the depth, the frontality can always be maintained no matter where the viewpoint moves. In this work, viewers are overwhelmed by the dynamic spatial representation of the raging waves rising up and then strongly pulling back, but the waves are not moving from the back to the front, they are indeed always developing in a horizontal direction which aligns with the horizontally shifting viewpoint of scroll paintings. As a result, by standing in front of this large screen, viewers can always feel the movement of the waves head on while moving their viewpoint freely from side to side. In other words, a virtual space of the same scale as reality expands behind the display, reproducing the same experience of glancing through a window. Furthermore, it is worth noting that the depiction of waves is illustrated in a combination of lines, which is a representation following the very East Asian “sight”. In Western art, the expression of water is usually captured from a dynamic perspective in terms of texture and volume, which can be understood by looking at Courbet’s dramatic depiction of the approaching raging waves. Whereas in East Asia, it is obvious as in Hokusai's example which rain, rivers and waves are often depicted from a static perspective emphasizing form and lines, resembling high-speed photography. teamLab reinterprets depictions of the picturesque space and time utilizing cutting-edge technology.
