MFA VISUAL ART

Takahiro Okubo

Shifting, by Takahiro Okubo, is kinetic, mechanical, and interactive. Composed of three polyhedron frames, Takahiro’s thesis project dynamically changes, interacting with viewers through sensors that trigger random and unpredictable movement in the piece. Placed above the viewer as canopy sculptures, the frames are draped with a transparent fabric that refracts light. The structures are illuminated by sunlight and a projection of water, adding another layer of unpredictability and impermanence as the time of day and weather conditions alter the way the frames are lit. Takahiro’s Shifting is a multi-interactional entity shaped by various unrelated factors, such as the viewer’s movement and vantage point, as well as the time of day and weather.

Takahiro’s thesis is a continuation of his previous work in Tokyo and at San Fransico State University. In Tokyo, Takahiro was a studio assistant to Nobuhiko Utsumi, a painter whose active ink flow work is intended to reflect the transforming universe. Nobuhiko himself studied under Katsuro Yoshida, a Mono-ha movement sculptor who investigated the relationship between humans and raw material. This important artistic lineage, which has collectively been dedicated to exploring humanity’s relationship with the uncontrollable and unpredictable, continues to influence Takahiro’s work. At San Fransico State, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art, Takahiro was introduced to the DIY robotics movement by Kal Spelletich, a pioneer of the Bay Area’s machine art scene, who also taught him about the practices of Survival Research Laboratories, whose website declares they have been making “dangerous and disturbing mechanical presentations since 1979.”

While Takahiro’s own work does not seem dangerous, it does still disturb some of our more mundane assumptions about the world. Impermanence in the universe is one of its important themes. Takahiro uses kinetic movement driven by the viewer’s reactions to his art as a means of increasing that impermanence. Unlike other machines that are created for specific and practical purposes, Takahiro’s mechanisms embrace and amplify the ever-changing state of the universe. They force the viewer to confront their own impermanence, and to engage with the fundamental randomness and instability of the world.

— Camellia Valencia, OSU Department of History of Art, PhD Student

< Samuel Lo

Shruti Shankar >