—Please share what impressions you had from the onsite tour.
I’m from Okinawa, but moved to Tokyo soon after graduating from high school, so I really felt on this trip that I actually didn’t know much about Okinawa. In particular, everything I learned about the history of the Ryukyu Kingdom was new to me. As I learned, I sensed the spirit of Ryukyu and Okinawa. It’s the small island’s unique identity of “flowing and making skillful use of the passing tides.” That’s why I plan to make “passing tides” the keyword of my artwork. I hit on this idea while touring Shurijo Castle, which is located on a “long mai” site where, according to feng shui, a great amount of life force accumulates. I think this skillful use of the passing tides is the ideology of Ryukyu.
—Please tell us about the artwork you are planning to create.
For this artwork, I want to seamlessly link multiple symbolic scenes to communicate the “passing tides” I sensed from Ryukyu and Okinawa. Also, since the exhibit site is an open space where the sun shines in, multiple large monitors will function as windows that frame images that spatially expand beyond the monitors. I’d like for sensors to detect the position of the viewer’s head, and to use projection technology that makes viewers feel as if there truly is an expansive space behind the monitors. At the same time, I’m thinking about whether I can do something interesting using spatial connections between the sky and ocean.
