Year: 2022
Medium: L.E.D., IC, electric wire, aluminum panel
Dimensions: 83 x 26 x 3 cm (32 5/8 x 10 1/4 x 1 1/8 in.) overall, 11 x 26 x 3 cm(4 3/8 x 10 1/4 x 1 1/8 in.) x 5 Units
Acquired from SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, 2022
This work is from Miyajima’s signature series, which features digital counters. Using light-emitting diodes (LEDs), each of the five boards ceaselessly displays up to 20 digits. Ten small displays are arranged on each of these boards, continuously exhibiting two-digit numbers. The digit 0 is not shown and is instead represented by darkness. This eternally repeating cycle from nothingness to the number 9 may evoke the concept of reincarnation when considered in terms of Eastern religion. Each board presents an overwhelming array of combinations, a total of one septillion (ranging from the darkness representing 0 to 99,999,999,999,999,999,999). Looking at the entire artwork, this vast spectrum of possibilities is multiplied by five. With a human lifespan of 80 years only amounting to about 2.5 billion seconds, it would be theoretically impossible for a single human being to observe all the possible combinations of numbers, even if they were to gaze at this piece for their whole life without blinking. In this way, the work vastly deviates from our human understanding of time. Through the use of numbers, which are universally shared among humanity, Miyajima contextualizes human existence relative to the universe and the world. While the work adopts the format of artwork that can be affixed to a surface, much like a painting, it accomplishes what a traditional painting cannot—revealing a perpetual state of continuous change.
