In the situation of the fast-paced advancement of media and networks as exemplified by the development of virtual reality technology and avatars, [渡辺豪] Go Watanabe (Japan, 1975) works provide perspectives on and a new appreciation for “seeing”, inducing a transformation of our somatic sensation, and stimulating our awareness.

‘M5A5’ (2017) is a large-scale site-specific installation, an overwhelming video work both physically and in terms of content. A total of four large projection images are carefully placed in the exhibition room, depicting a motif of tableware on shelves that slowly shift and collapse.

Moving through the exhibition room, visitors can see that all the images are vertically connected in terms of content. The collapse caused by the ‘misalignment’ that progressed with each screen is created by the four light pattern cycles within the 3DCG polyhedron world frame: changes in daylight in the room from the original artificially altered; light imported from a different and unrelated room arbitrarily applied; lighting taken from other indoor and outdoor sources; colour emanating from the objects themselves.

In this exhibition, the video installation questions materiality, spatiality, and temporality by rearranging the order and location of light on each object, using tableware as motifs.

All of Watanabe’s works are made with 3DCG, but the objects are of such realism before they collapse that they can be mistaken for the real thing. The moment a crack appears on their surface and we realise they are hollow, the viewer experiences a shift from reality to the created world.

Engawa – A Season of Contemporary Art from Japan

‘Engawa’ is a programming that brings to Lisbon a set of creators from Japan and the Japanese diaspora, many of them for the first time in Portugal. More info