Inspired by a strong and enduring interest in depth psychology, dreams, and the realm of memory, Hiraki Sawa (born 1977 in Ishikawa, Japan, currently based in London) produces videos interweaving the real and fictitious that have been presented at exhibitions around the world. Installation composed of elaborate multi-screen arrangements showing multiple videos offers a mesmerizing visual experience that also makes the viewer conscious of their own physicality, and expresses rich interior worlds where memory, emotion, and sensation converge.
MAM Collection 017 presents Sawa’s six-channel video installation Hako (2007). The title Hako, meaning “box,” has its origins in the psychotherapy technique of sand play. In sand play therapy, the patient arranges toys and miniature objects in a sandbox to create a three-dimensional version of the mental state they are unable to express verbally, the aim being to enhance the self-healing powers present in the unconscious.
Here videos including images of a room with hints of human presence, a Ferris wheel at the beach, fireworks lighting up the night sky at a harbor, and a shrine sitting deep in a forest are projected on upright screens. Accompanied by a soundtrack that feels at once somehow familiar, images locked away in the depths of people’s memories play in synchronized fashion, merging into a single scene.
MAM Collection 017 presents a version reconfigured to underscore the worldview of the sand play therapy that originally inspired the work. Hako is also joined here by a drawing of a dream-eating sheep, and the video work featuring superimposed afterimages of a dancer. The resonance between these different works entices viewers into a landscape where unconscious and conscious, dream and reality intersect.
Opening Hours
10:00 AM - 10:00 PM
Until 17:00 on Tuesdays. Until 17:00 on October 26. Until 22:00 on January 2 and March 19.
Fee
Weekdays:
Adults ¥2000
University & High School Students ¥1400
Age 4–Junior High Students ¥800, 65 & Up ¥1700
Weekends and Public Holidays:
Adults ¥2200
University & High School Students ¥1500
Age 4–Junior High Students ¥900, 65 & Up ¥1900.
Venue
Mori Art Museum
53F Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Access
3 minute walk from exit 1C at Roppongi Station on the Hibiya line, 6 minute walk from exit 3 at Roppongi Station on the Toei Oedo line; From JR Shibuya Station, take the Toei bus and get off at Roppongi Hills.