Year: 2020
Medium: rose quartz, cast bronze jet nozzles, smart glass film, custom social network analysis algorithm, lidar, embedded computing board, electrical components, concrete, steel, aluminum, wood, glass
Dimensions: Stone: 77.5 x 86.4 x 63.5 cm (30 1/2 x 34 × 25 in.) Glass panels: 91.4 x 167.6 x 1cm (36 x 66 x 3/8 in.) each Concrete bases: 40.6 x 31.1 x 31.1 cm (16 x 15 x 15 in.) each
Acquired from Acquired from Pace Gallery, 2023
This installation work was presented at Art Basel Unlimited 2023 in Switzerland as a development of the sculpture series “Pranayama.” In “Pranayama”, sculpture bodies are made of marble, wood, and rose quartz (crystal) gemstone, with several holes drilled through which jacuzzi nozzles are embedded. The word “Pranayama” in Sanskrit means to control the air of life energy, or simply, to breathe in order to live. The symbolic jacuzzi nozzles of the work represent the exhalation that circulates inside and outside the body. A pair of glass panels is arranged to surround the “Pranayama” rose quartz in this piece. When viewers approach this panel, a sensor activates the social network analysis algorithm causing the glass to keep turning transparent or opaque, mimicking the act of breathing. The arrangement of the jacuzzi nozzles is said to reference the meridian diagram of acupuncture. The concept of “Pranayama” breathing and the network of meridians within the body indicate that the theme of this work is about the human body. Furthermore, the physicality Tajima expresses in this work extends its range outside of the body in the form of the social network, which requires others for its identification. The title “You Be My Body For Me” likely references the discussion between two philosophers, Judith Butler and Catherine Malabou. They used the term “plasticity” with references to Hegel and Foucault to discuss the state of body and shape in a broad and developing way. This work contemplates the “body” that exists as plasticity between “me” and “you.”
