Shino Yanai explores the plasticity of sound and its power to create fresh or imagined memories. This new Beaconsfield commission is an evolving installation and invites Ken Ikeda (Tokyo) to collaborate in the exhibition and perform in London.
The remote collaboration between Yanai and Ikeda emphasises the concept of distance in relation to time and location, employing field recordings, improvised composition, film, video, voice, prepared piano and electroacoustic instruments. Ikeda responds to Yanai’s visual imagery with sound compositions from Tokyo, that are woven into Yanai’s material installation in London. In early December, Ikeda will travel to London to improvise in real time, in a performance with Yanai. Their live, sonic interaction will be captured, and the recording re-woven into the exhibition environment. Later, a limited-edition vinyl record will be produced by Beaconsfield.
Memories float for a moment and then fall explores the capacity of auditory experience to stimulate imaginative reconstructions of historic events, occurrences and identity. Such ‘memories’ are expressions of a yearning to know, or fantasies rooted in hearsay or reminiscence. The installation creates a place and time where we can imagine narratives or events that we have neither witnessed nor experienced.
This project has been made possible through the kind support of the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and Japan Foundation London.
