Yuko Mohri, a Japan-based artist, combines found objects with circuits, connectivity, and the intangible to reimagine her everyday environments into kinetic, interactive ecosystems. Mohri says, “I think there is a collaboration between human being and object, and/or environment. When I make work from a found object, through touch or modification, various expressions or functions can emerge from it. My installations consist of a group of these small kinetic objects and are completed by the exhibition space and its greater environment.” The site-specific (physical and at times, intangible) elements of her exhibition spaces play a major role in the interaction and orchestration of Mohri’s work. In Voluta (2017), music is converted into magnetic force and is then used to move metallic objects through concrete and plaster sculptures. In From A (2015), electrified debris is converted into various movements, sounds, and light.
“Even if it is a simple white cube, each space has its own features, such as the texture of the floor, how the sound reverberates, how the light comes from the window, or how the subtle wind of air conditioner flows.. I am happy to find these small things anyone can rarely recognize. I want to include them into my installation. Through doing so, it creates a kind of an ecosystem peculiar to its exhibited place.”
In Oni-bi (2013), wind triggers touch between curtain and screen, creating sparks to play reverberations on a glockenspiel, producing a kind of otherworldly music. “Even if it is a simple white cube, each space has its own features, such as the texture of the floor, how the sound reverberates, how the light comes from the window, or how the subtle wind of air conditioner flows.. I am happy to find these small things anyone can rarely recognize. I want to include them into my installation. Through doing so, it creates a kind of an ecosystem peculiar to its exhibited place.” By channeling these intangible forces, such as magnetism, gravity, temperature, and light, Mohri allows them to take control of her work, emphasizing the existing powers of the nonhuman and giving life to the ideas of chance, transience, and improvisation. “I admire dancers or musicians who change their choreography and play spontaneously according to their feelings or the situation where they are found and that’s why I make my work in an improvised way. I don’t depict a vision of a whole sculpture from the beginning. I always want to value the inspiration got from the place and the encounter with it.”
Written by Carolyn Rhee
