Explore vivid worlds of sight, sound, smell
Asian Art Museum’s digital ‘Continuity’ exhibition promises unique experiences
As my eyes adjusted to both the darkness of the gallery and the swirling pink and fuchsia flowers projected on the walls and floor, it hit me: a blast of sweet pea, maybe tuberose, perhaps peony? The fragrance drifted through the galleries (and my mask), and I mentally connected the smell to the explosions of digital flowers surrounding me. The perfume was mildly intoxicating but not too artificial: It was a heightened interpretation of what spring flowers smell like, rather than a recreation. That is also an apt description for “Continuity,” the inaugural exhibition at the Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Pavilion at the Asian Art Museum by Tokyo based art collective teamLab.
The moving images, soundtrack and even the fragrances piped into the gallery are all entirely original and created by the hundreds of programmers and designers who make up teamLab, founded by Toshiyuki Inoko in 2001. The collective oversees a number of exhibition spaces in Tokyo in addition to exhibiting internationally, including at Menlo Park’s Pace Gallery in 2016.
I was drifting with the fragrance between the areas comprising the works “Forest of Flowers and People: Lost, Immersed and Reborn” and “Reversible Rotation, Flying Beyond Borders — One Stroke, Cold Light.” The headiness of it all was like being enclosed in a sweetscented handbag, lined in the most unimaginably beautiful floral print.
As I approached the projections on the walls and floor, the images reacted, sensitive to my movements. Flowers dropped petals; petals became beams of light. Butterflies flocked in the “Flutter of Butterflies Beyond Borders, Ephemeral Life” section; then a bird took off and exploded into stars across the gallery.
The 14 artworks that fill the galleries (projected from the ceilings and programmed with algorithms that react to movement with different animation scenarios) have virtually limitless configurations and possibilities, said Inoko through a teamLab interpreter.
Even if it’s just slight differences in the positioning of images and the trajectories of movement, the installation will never be the same twice.
The aesthetic of the work goes more for delicate stylization than strict representation. The environmentally evocative worlds — spanning gardens, oceans and celestial galaxies — are highly influenced by East Asian botanical art, with its digital abundance and animation bringing the style into a new context.
“It’s cuttingedge, totally immersive and interactive art that also reflects our positioning on the north end of Silicon Valley,” said Asian Art Museum Director and CEO Jay Xu. “At the same time, the iconography (of “Continuity”) is deeply rooted in traditional Japanese art, whether it’s iconography like the flowers or the crow. It’s a 21st century experience of it, and it connects the art of the past with the art of the present.”
The exhibition was originally set to open in the spring of 2020 when the new pavilion and sculpture terrace by architect Kulapat Yantrasast were also intended to be unveiled. Of course, the pandemic delayed those plans.
Xu said “Continuity” is the kind of installation that could not previously have been presented at the museum, due to its extensive spatial and technical needs. The work is both a testament to the expansion project and another ambitious declaration of the museum’s focus on contemporary Asian art as it continues to evolve its public identity as a 21st century institution. The Asian Art Museum’s relationship with teamLab is not new. In 2015, the institution was the first museum in North America to collect a digital work by teamLab.
Inoko, who lived in San Francisco for six months when he was 20, described teamLab’s approach to installations like “Continuity” as akin to breaking art out of the many physical frames and constraints we’re used to experiencing it in.
“Normally when you look at a video, the display, the screen become a boundary that separates the world of the work you’re seeing,” Inoko explained. “I wanted to create a new logical structure in which the way
we cut out a scene of the world, and display a scene, is different from how the world is cut out by a lens. Many of our artworks use that same logical structure.”
Immersive, digitally animated and projected art experiences are big in pop culture right now, likely a natural reaction to breaking out of the small screens of quarantine. “Immersive Van Gogh” and similar projects celebrating other artists like Monet have been hits across the country. What’s different about “Continuity” is the way the interactivity takes you from passive viewer to full participant in the work.
And with admission for “Continuity” topping out at $20, it costs about half as much as starting prices for those other digital art attractions.
“Continuity” is the most immersive yet of these art experiences. It’s also one of the most original works this new genre has yielded yet. But in spite of the constant activity of the work, the tempo of the installation feels appropriately tuned to take in the many possibilities and iterations of the art over an extended period. It’s enough time to allow you to stop and smell the fragrance of the digital roses.