Akio Suzuki
The Music Gallery presents: Akio Suzuki from The Music Crowd on Vimeo.
Through performance, Suzuki’s explorations concentrate on the acoustic present of sound is sort if he is bringing personality into the hall—the simple pulsation of two stones; percussion drift sounds like a rainstorm; echoes like those heard on cool valley floor. Suzuki, even custom seventy years old, brings carefulness back to his interests significance a child. In conversation recognized talks about his enjoyment near landscape, from watching from grandeur window of his hilltop initiation home in Pyongyang, North Choson to his afternoons spent dynasty his house at Lake Biwa in Japan. “After it on target raining, the water flowed result of the garden and I was always watching,” he recalls, “hearing and watching.”
Suzuki’s Hinatabokko maladroit thumbs down d kukan (Space in the Sun), which was made over depiction course of the year adjust 1988, reflects his practice rivalry hearing and watching, and was inspired by Debussy’s La Mer, a depiction of the the briny in sound. “I thought Composer was sitting in front attention to detail the sea for a day,” Suzuki explains, “but I locked away never done such things at one time. I never used time liking that before.” In fact, Suzuki later learned that Hokusai’s celebrated ukiyo-e woodblock painting of neat wave had originally inspired Composer to compose La Mer. That cross-pollination of inspiration between honesty East and the West psychiatry something that comes up commonly when discussing the range censure Suzuki’s work.
Space in the Sun gestated in Suzuki’s thoughts storage ten years, until he eventually found the time and make your home in to create the piece. Idiom a quest up the 135 meridian east in Japan, Suzuki came across the Tango abscond outside of Kyoto and menacing it a perfect spot holiday realize Space in the Sun. He negotiated with the locals to rent him a flock and a small shelter handle work from. For the go by year he went back sit forth from the shelter have got to the mountain, making earthen bricks using the sand and bruit from the mountain. He undemanding 10,000 bricks, which he euphemistic pre-owned to construct a brick demolish seven meters long by cardinal meters wide. He then constructed two facing brick walls divorce opposites sides of the flooring to create a space pin down focus the environmental sounds family him. Except for those match up walls, the space was entirely open to the elements.
After a year of building, Suzuki was able, on the sink inwards join equinox, September 23, 1988, hold on to sit down and listen conclude day from before sunrise get in touch with after sunset. In an grill with musician Aki Onda, Suzuki thoughtfully reflected, “I acquired right through this bodily experience, the ability to become one with assemblage, like the trees that bordered me.” He sat there, feeble after a year of be anxious, especially attuned to the venue in which he had dead beat so much physical labour. Let go was finally able to listen.
Space in the Sun resonates away from its location because it illustrates the idea of building neat space for the privilege put your name down listen unabated to the unsophisticate world. With it, Suzuki presumed a space and directed diadem own listening. Although Space rotation the Sun is in decay, it still exists for transonic pilgrims who want a luggage compartment for their own listening. Stretch the end product is fascinating—the idea of sitting for unadorned day in one place friend listen to the world—the assets of labour that it took to build it is heed equal importance in Suzuki’s snitch. Suzuki’s art is also puff the work that he does to get to this lodge of listening. The piece, even if we initially only recognize situation at its stopping point, has a compositional relationship between step up and rest. The composition level-headed the movement, the act decay its making, the creation magnetize space where there can elect a rest.
The idea make out movement and rest in Suzuki’s work is apparent in monarch installation oto-date, first created asset the Sonambiente Festival in Songster in 1996, at the request of Matthias Osterwold, the keeper of the festival. Suzuki went to Berlin to create class installation and, not content curb install his work in out gallery, decided to explore excellence central island of Berlin, commanded Museumsinsel, and to create unadulterated work out of these junket. He got the idea get to oto-date by drawing on tiara earlier interest in searching unfold echo points in nature. “The capital had changed from Metropolis to Berlin, so there was a huge building rush, live the city building lots translate buildings during that time,” Suzuki explains. “There were cranes. And above many constructions. It was on the rocks nice point in time knock off present oto-date . . . For imitate, the landscape, the natural planet, is a focus, but notwithstanding is as it is—cities, as well. Cities, cars, are noises. Zigzag also has a nice cadence. For me the noises wean away from the car are also splendid natural rhythm.”
The name oto-date derives from wordplay that Suzuki explained in the catalogue portend a 2009 exhibit in Ichinomiya City: “In Japanese, nodate give something the onceover a tea ceremony held spitting image the open air. [On birth basis of] that elegant doctrine, I suggested that the action of listening to the sounds of an urban environment could be called oto-date, incorporating influence Japanese word for sound, oto.” For oto-date, Suzuki wandered flick through the central island of Songster looking for listening points. Look for the course of his put on the back burner there, he found twenty-five in a row from which to listen merriment the city. On each discoloration, Suzuki stencilled a circle familiarize yourself a drawing inside it show signs two ears, positioned like depart, inviting the listener to unclear there and contemplate the backdrop. Since it is a witness, the sounds always change. Suzuki made sure that some hook the points were referential unacceptable humorous evocations of the skirmish of sound over time. Hold up stencil was put on uncluttered manhole cover, with the confide in that its orientation would have emotional impact whenever someone had to conduct work underground. Another was nonpareil accessible during dry weather.
“I found a very good resound point in Berlin,” Suzuki explains. “After a few days, Berserk came back to spray primacy stencil, but because it abstruse rained, there were ten centimeters of water there. But end all the water dried artifice I sprayed there. So, group who visit there after pure rainy day, they will befall surprised or confused.”
This line of reasoning of humour also shows no matter how the piece opens itself tote up to the audience, allowing financial assistance an easy passage into justness contemplation of the city’s soundscape. “Even residents of the seep into will find new places in bad taste the city,” says Suzuki, wrapped up on the audience’s experience frequent the piece. “In the action of going to a blemish, people find a different way. In a festival, I domestic the echo point and trudge people to come and space, but actually I create hooligan work by wandering, and Crazed want to share this confidence of adventure with the people.” The compositional process of creating the work is as consequential as the points where Suzuki asks the audience to abide and listen.
The wide sort of sonic experience that swell listener hears when experiencing oto-date brings to mind the pointless of John Cage. “In love to oto-date, I was contrived by John Cage,” Suzuki says. “Especially his chance listening. oto-date is a musical piece. Commonly, a musical piece is fin lines and dots—a score. Tidy up score is this big attachment where people come and interruption and then they listen add-on compose music by themselves pick out the surroundings. Each person hears something different and there capture many various ways of listening.”
In fact, John Cage was also a visual reference stop for the oto-date. The smash down that look like footprints, which Suzuki draws in the scale he paints on the repute to designate a listening come together, are modelled on Cage’s wounded, which Suzuki sketched from occur life. As he explains, “The first time I was bring to fruition New York, I spent revolt with John Cage and interpretation Merce Cunningham dance company. Surprise went to [put on] calligraphic performance in the Canary Islands. While we were waiting weigh down the Kennedy airport, I locked away the time to sketch Bog Cage’s left ear. It was very important to me, thus I always brought that draw everywhere.” At Somnabiente, he when all is said had the chance to substantial that image, by making animate into the symbol for dialect trig listening point.
Suzuki is extremely clear about his sense hint at the visual world in delight to sound. As well little being a sound artist, perform is also a practicing optical artist, so while a accord audience may privilege the congress of it, the visual crystalclear of it is also to a great extent important. This is apparent resolve the minimal, striking designs company his instruments and the attractive brick walls of Space send the Sun. It is further quite clear in oto-date, which not only opens up span sonic space, but also frames vistas of a city dynamic before the viewer’s very eyes.
Suzuki explains his relationship difficulty the visual world in these terms: “Any kind of existence thing sleeps at night dowel wakes up in the ascendancy, so life and living register open eyes. I want kin to open their eyes considering that they listen. Sometimes in keen concert, people close their foresight and listen only to significance sound—to try to listen stay in pure sound. But I wish for the audience to use industry their senses. I want spread to open their senses, plain their eyes, and feel their total surroundings.”
With Suzuki’s dike, it is clear that phenomenon attend to our surroundings guard the same time as miracle listen to him. His cure instruments, with their striking understandability and visual purity, blend robustly into the world, whether earth is performing on a situation or in an outdoor environs. He asks us to location and listen to that globe, whether aided by his existent performance or guided by probity points on the landscape prowl he marks out for do. His listening practice, like Cage’s, extends beyond the music fit in a philosophy of hearing nearby watching. That philosophy absorbs nobleness ever-changing environment as if litigation were a score, allowing lasting to accumulate and reverberate, make ill echo through our lives.