This July 5 – 29 2018, Carriageworks presents the Australian premiere of two large-scale audio-visual installations by acclaimed Japanese electronic composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda. The free exhibition, titled micro | macro, explores the intersection of art and quantum physics and will be the third major installation presented by the artist at the Redfern-based multi-arts institution.
Carriageworks Director Lisa Havilah says: ‘Following the success of Ryoji’s first two projects at Carriageworks, we look forward to welcoming him for this major new installation, that invites audiences to relate to the smallest and largest conceivable matter in the universe.’
Ikeda pioneers new technologies and tests the limits of what is observable and knowable in our universe in an attempt to understand it and make it visible. The new installations being presented at Carriageworks were developed during a residency at Switzerland’s Cern, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, and, as with many of his artworks, micro | macro explores the intersection of art and science, in this case the very materials that make up our universe.
Presented in a theatrical context and covering 172.8 square metres of exhibition space inside Carriageworks, the first work titled the planck universe [micro] explores the building blocks of matter and is a representation of nature that is infinitesimally small, brought to human scale by enlarging it by a measure of 10-35m.
The second installation in the exhibition, the planck universe [macro], features an immense wall projection over 10 metres tall, that seeks to depict nature, scanned from human scale to the cosmological scale beyond our observable universe. The installation explores expressive new forms at the frontier of the visual arts and promises to immerse visitors.
As one of Japan’s leading electronic composers and visual artists, Ryoji Ikeda has gained a reputation as one of the few international artists working convincingly across both visual and sonic media. Ikeda started working with light as a medium in the 1990s and his work is characterised by mathematical precision. He elaborately orchestrates sound, visuals, materials, physical phenomena and mathematical notions into immersive live performances and installations.
Artist Ryoji Ikeda commented: ‘My work is created by reducing sound, light and the world into sine waves, pixels and data… so that the world can be viewed once more at a different resolution.’
Through the process of exploring the outer limits of our cosmos perceivable by humans as well as that which is knowable and measurable, Ryoji Ikeda is attempting to bring an understanding of the universe, and our place within it.
Shannan Whitney, Director and CEO of BresicWhitney, the presenting partner of Ryoji Ikeda’s micro | macro says: “We are delighted to partner with Carriageworks to present these monumental installations by Ryoji Ikeda and, once again, bring innovative and internationally acclaimed contemporary art to the Australian public.”
BresicWhitney is a Major Partner of Carriageworks and the presenting partner of Ryoji Ikeda. This project is proudly supported by TDC and media partners FBi Radio and Broadsheet.
