SPATIAL DIALOGUES This poster is a limited edition print. Zenel House A teamLab Solo Exhibition 6 June 30 August 2024
SPATIAL DIALOGUES
The blessings and threats of nature, as well as civilization, are continuous. Nonetheless, we seek to affirm life in all aspects. Life is beautiful.
In this artwork, 生 (sei), the character that signifies life, is written three-dimensionally using Spatial Calligraphy Spatial Calligraphy is a form of calligraphy drawn in space that teamLab has been exploring since it was founded. The artwork reconstructs calligraphy in three-dimensional space to express the depth, speed and power of the brush stroke, and that calligraphy is then flattened using the logical structure teamLab calls Ultrasubjective Space. The calligraphy shifts between two and three dimensions.
In this artwork, the existence of a person is depicted through the energy dissipated by people into the world for as long as they live.
Being consists of the mind, the body, and the environment that is continuous with them.
6 June 30 August 2024
A teamLab Solo Exhibition
Spatial Dialogues provides a retrospective overview of teamLab’s artistic practice over the past eight years, emphasizing the evolution of their conceptual ideas and their interplay with technology. This exhibition also celebrates the long-standing relationship between teamLab and ATHR, whose earliest collaboration dates back to 2016. This period marks significant milestones in their creative exchange, further enhanced with the recent introduction of 8K screen technology. This advancement enriches the non-subjective viewer experience, transforming the three-dimensional spatial dynamics of the Borderless Museum into seamless 8K visuals, thereby rendering teamLab’s work more accessible to a broader audience.
In classical East Asian art, waves are often expressed using a combination of lines. These waves created by lines allow us to realize that each wave is one part of a larger flow, and conveys life as though the waves are a living entity.
When the waves rise, we can feel a powerful breath of life, as though life is blooming. It feels as though each wave has a life of its own. But when the waves collapse and disappear, we realize, with a sense of fragility, that they were a part of the ocean.
The waves are expressed through a continuous body of countless water particles. The interactions of particles are calculated, and then the movement of water is simulated in three-dimensional space. Lines are created along the trajectories of the water particles, and drawn on the surface layer of the three-dimensional waves.
The lines are created with Ultrasubjective Space. The artwork space is continuous with the space of the viewer’s body.
The space of a traditional artwork, framed by a lens or perspective, appears to be on the other side of the artwork’s surface: the surface becomes a boundary, and the space where the viewer exists is separated from the artwork space. However, one of the characteristics of Ultrasubjective Space is that the artwork surface does not become a boundary.
Thus the space in which the artwork exists, transcends the boundary of the artwork surface and is perceived as though it exists three-dimensionally in the same space where the viewer stands. The artwork space is continuous with the viewer’s physical space.
A key element of teamLab’s practice is the concept of ultrasubjective space, which draws from East Asian artistic traditions, such as Japanese scroll paintings and Islamic miniature art. This concept offers a unique perspective that contrasts with Western two-dimensional perspectives, established during the Italian Renaissance. teamLab leverages advanced digital techniques to eliminate the boundaries between the viewer and the artwork, placing the viewer within the art itself. This movable viewpoint allows for an immersive and collective experience, encouraging viewers to explore the artwork dynamically. By blending art history with modern technology, teamLab fosters collective experiences, making their intricate reflections on art, life, and society more accessible to all.
The contours of life’s existence are not the surface boundary of the body, but something ambiguous that includes the environment that is continuous with it.
As long as people live, they dissipate energy and affect the environment, such as the flow of air.
When people touch the flowers, they scatter and die. When people touch the sand, the falling sand breaks up.
Since ancient times people have looked at falling sand to understand the concept of short periods of time, and they have seen the changes in the flowers that bloom to feel the passage of longer periods of time. The time of the falling sand, the repeated life and death of the flowers, and the time of people's bodies - all these different times intersect and overlap.
Although self and nature seem distinct, they are actually a single entity, inseparable from each other. The opposite of division is not unification, and we might realize that existences that appear to be distinct are actually part of a single whole.
Life is like a vortex created in the ocean. A vortex forms and exists in a flow of matter, and the boundaries of its existence are ambiguous.
The vortex cannot maintain a stable structure on its own; it is created and sustained by water that continuously flows inwards and outwards.
The same is true of life. Life does not exist by itself.
Life is a miraculous phenomenon that emerges from a flow in an open world. Like an ocean vortex, it is an existence with ambiguous boundaries in an infinite continuity.
To be alive is to be inseparable from the world, constantly dissipating energy into it.
Flames are a phenomenon of light and heat generated by combustion; it is a vaporized substance in a flow, a decomposed substance. It is our sensory experience of seeing what is in between phenomenon and substance.
Lines are drawn in relation to the flow of combusting gas, and the flames are created by the accumulation of those lines in three-dimensions. The lines are then “flattened” using what teamLab considers to be Ultrasubjective Space to represent the flames.
The descriptions of the referenced artworks were sourced from teamLab's official website, with minor revisions made for clarity and conciseness
Dissipative Figures – 1000 Birds, Black in White 2022, Digital Work, 4 channels, Continuous loop Universe of Fire Particles: Born in the Darkness, Return to the Darkness 2021, Digital Work, Single channel, Continuous Loop Dissipative Figures – Human, Light in Dark 2023, Digital Work, Single channel, Continuous loop Memory of Waves 2024, Digital Work, 4 channels, Continuous Loop Life Survives by the Power of Life II 2020, Digital Work, 60 min (loop), 8K Source Calligraphy: Sisyu This artwork is exclusive to Jeddah. Persistence of Life in the Sandfall 2024, Digital Work, 12 channels, Continuous Loop Dissipative Figures Ultrasubjective Space