Review ~ Numen/For Use

Numen/For Use “Tape Tokyo 02” @ 21_21 Design Sight, 2017_ photo by Ryder Richards

Numen/For Use
Tape Tokyo 02
“Grand Projects: How Far Will You Go?”
by Exhibition Director, Naoko Aono
21_21 Design Sight, Tokyo [link]

ARTICLE

Tethered and taught, 21,120 meters of tape stretch into a translucent organ, squeaking and groaning as squirming, curious museum goers crawl through its aortal expanses. Choosing populist excess –cheap tape and labor instead of high-end fabrication— allows patrons near familiarity, prompting magical wonder at the common’s transformative ability. Inside the womb, externalities of sight and sound muted, the individual is left to entertain the alien familiarity of an organic space, or retreat from such existentialism to our digital umbilicus as experiential intermediary. Externally, the blurred shadow’s peristaltic migration is regarded, jealously, as the latest morsel consumed and consuming a novelty.

Ryder Richards
all images by the author