THE ABSENCE OF MAGNETISM

  

  The artists - Tatiana Trouvé (Italy), Nelo Akamatsu (Japan), Zilvinas Kempinas (Lithuania) and Pe Lang (Switzerland) from four different cultural different backgrounds take a physical terminology: magnetism - to explore natural magnetism in space, power dynamics and human movements on Earth through their installation and sculptural works. “Magnetism_T” is currently exhibited in the New Media Gallery, New Westminster. Generally, our understanding of space is mostly limited to objects in scope, not space itself. Three artists among them (Nelo Akamatsu, Zilvinas Kempinas, Tatiana Trouvé) establish and explore a common understanding of space and magnetism through their magnetism-themed works in the exhibition, in terms of avoiding certainty, stimulating the psychological potential of space and magnetism on us, and creating a new spatial reality. 

“Chijikinkutsu”, Nelo Akamatsu

  Although human senses are not aware of the magnetism in the space, the Earth’s spatial magnetism has always existed and affected everything. “Chijikinkutsu” is a sound installation created by Nelo Akamatsu. “Chijikinkutsu” combines two Japanese words: Chiji and Suikinkutsu. Chiji means geomagnetism, while Suikinkutsu is a landscaping installation of a traditional Japanese garden, the water drops into a hollow pot and makes a loud resonance echo. Akamatsu extends this concept by placing the magnetic needles in a glass of water and dispersing them along four walls in the room. Each glass creates a circular water surface with a magnetic needle floating on it, pointing north and south. When the copper coil on the glass conducts electricity, and under the influence of the invisible magnetism and magnetic field in the space, the sound of the disordered magnetic needle hitting the glass wall begins. Human beings themselves have a magnetic field, so whether my involvement affects the magnetic needle pointing north and south is worth thinking about when I am in Akamatsu’s space. Akamatsu’s representational space makes the audience think that their magnetic field affects the magnetic needles hitting the glass. Everything is intentional, but it is worth noting that the magnetic needle pointing to the south or north is uncertain. “I did not include many elements into the work, but aimed to create a minimal expression like a painting a large unpainted margin. I did not add unnecessary elements like many color, LED lights, amplification of sound and etc…, so that the acoustic sounds would stand out and viewers could concentrate upon listening to them. And then, some might become aware that geomagnetism is the cause for the movement of the needles.” (Akamatsu, 2013-2015) Akamatsu stimulates our psychological potential in the space or translating hidden subconscious feelings into a physical/spatial reality through his sound installation. When this space is silent, I will find that the biological rhythm is slowly synchronizing with them. If there is only me in Akamatsu's space, I feel myself connecting to the object. My mental movements and the frequency of the heartbeat and breathing, follow the sound of the magnetic needle hitting the glass. At that moment, I realized that the sound was not from the ear, but that it already existed in our minds. In this room isolated from the other three installations, we are in a magnetic field, and we are in a magnetic world Akamatsu represented through physical reality. It is like having a conversation with nature, to perceive the magnetic world of this space, to use the sense of hearing to feel the connection between the world and the mind. It is worthwhile for me to think from a range of perspective that our existence as human beings and the impact of our activities on this planet. 

“Bearings”, Zilvinas Kempinas

  There are two other artworks outside of Akamatsu’s space. “Bearings” is a moving sculpture by Lithuanian artist Zilvinas Kempinas, which installed on the floor in the gallery space. Kempinas’s work is made up of hundreds of silver ball bearings sliding around a circle of transparency oil. These silver ball bearings joined in a shape that looks like a bird view of the earth or the polar system. Uncertainty is reflected in this sculptural work, the direction and trajectory of the bearings are unpredictable due to the influence of the magnetism underneath. It creates different shapes with every second because of the circulated air in the space, and it is continuously rotating changing, these shapes separate and combine with seconds. The sound of silver ball bearings sliding and hitting each other is uncanny and marvellous. The shape is not what the artist himself intended to do, as he casually scattered these bearings in a circle full of oil. I seem to be able to substitute myself into these silver ball bearings, and let my movements controlled by magnetic force underneath. Kempinas is interested in abstract space, using magnetism to interpret in his installation correctly. His attempt to record movement in space, without showing a human or animal figure, but an invisible thing.

“Bearings”, Zilvinas Kempinas

  With his moving installation, Kempinas transforms gallery space as well as Tatiana Trouvé ’s largest installation named as “240 Points Toward Infinity”. It is an installation combined with 240 plump bobs and lines by Paris-based artist Tatiana Trouvé, the only one that doesn’t move, they are suspended in mid-air. The tension created by 240 plump bobs dragged slightly off course by hidden magnetic forces vibrates in the air. Each line connects the gallery ceiling to the plump bobs, falling into different angles and direction, but not in contact with the ground. Kempinas and Tatiana’s transformation and recognition of space challenge the viewer’s perception of what is near and what is far, what is inside and what is outside, what is space and where is magnetism in this space. These two installations are formal and uncanny at a distance, but once I look at them, the sense of chaos will erupt from emotions. Their subversiveness is reflected in their questioning and falsification of the boundaries between real space and imaginary, illusionary space. These two installations reshape the space of the museum, and the building itself is no longer a static container, but an integral part of the work. “Representational space are certainly abstract, but they also play a part in social and political practice: established relations between objects and people in represented space are subordinate to a logic which will sooner or later break them up because of their lack of consistency.” (Lefebre 41) The gallery space is activated and reorganized, creating a new spatial reality in the gallery: in which visible and invisible, presence and absence constitute a subtle dialectical relationship with magnetism. The atmosphere created by the magnetic force in this space let me visualize the abstraction at different moments of its existence. “It stands somewhere between pictorial illusion and reality, and this I finding intriguing.” (Kempinas 2017) As an audience, I can decide for myself whether it is a flat surface or a three-dimensional object. The magnetism probably as visible and invisible like power and authority, and we are not able to manipulate. In the “Bearings”, silver ball bearings sliding and hitting each other, then shapes combining separating differently like migration on Earth. He utilizes magnetic forces underneath to express power dynamics, human movements on Earth, as well as the magical sound piece, letting me doubt, question and interpret the relationship between magnetism, space, and human beings. As well as Trouvé, her work is a kind of “invisible activity” model through a kind segmentation and reconstruction of the spatial structure to show the close relationship with space. “This interstitial space-time or these inter-worlds and the floating attention they generate when we install ourselves in them.” (Trouvé 2015) She erected an installation in the public gallery space, then we set the boundary of the space and occupy a space, we place things on our lives through her work and let the memories appear naturally.

“240 Points Toward Infinity”, Tatiana Trouvé

        

  In the installations that the three artists represented in the common understanding of space and magnetism, they are apparent about transforming the space, avoiding certainty and simulating psychological potential. We might feel the relationship between space and us, the relationship between invisible magnetism and us, and our emotional connection. On a larger scale, it is the relationship between earth, space, and human beings. The absence of magnetism always appears on various occasions we don’t pay attention to; however, these artists utilize the details to represent what we cannot see with the naked eyes. 

“240 Points Toward Infinity”, Tatiana Trouvé

References:

Akamatsu, Nelo. “Chijikinkutsu, 2013-2015 Sound Installation.” 赤松音呂 NELO AKAMATSU ART      PORTFOLIO赤松ネロ ポートフォリオ.

www.neloakamatsu.jp/works-eng.html.

Cué, Elena. “Interview with Tatiana Trouvé.” Alejandra De Argos, 18 Nov. 2015,

  www.alejandradeargos.com/index.php/en/all-articles/21-guests-with-art/496-interview-with-tatiana-    trouve.

Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space / Henri Lefebvre; translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith.

“The Process Itself Becomes an Art Piece.” Arterritory.com – Baltic, Russian and Scandinavian Art Territory

www.arterritory.com/en/texts/interviews/6281-the_process_itself_becomes_an_art_piece/.