“Globe jungle Project” by Yasuhiro Suzuki
Title:
- Globe jungle Project
Artist(s) and People Involved:
Exhibiting Artist(s):
Symposium:
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Artist Statement:
Half a century has passed since the globe jungle first appeared in Japan, and it can now be found in most neighborhoods. Children become absorbed while playing on the globe jungle; some turn it powerfully using their whole body, some cling to the top, and some squat down inside. This artwork was inspired one day when the silhouette of children playing on the globe jungle appeared like continents: the circling shadows looked like a miniaturized earth. What if the children playing on this playground toy reappeared in the same place at night? What if the globe jungle could also mean something to adults as well as to children? These thoughts lead to another perspective on this playground toy: the globe jungle as a visual installation.
Images of children in the daytime appear on half of the globe jungle, and park scenery filmed from inside the globe jungle appears on the counter half. This becomes an interface linking two comparatively distant spectacles: day and night in a park, inside and outside of a playground toy, and the viewers’ past and present A nostalgic illusion Is created by: the use of the newest projection technology, the rotation of a primitive object, and the result of an afterimage on one’s retina. This unique dimensional sensation is new as well as old, and obscures the division between the unusual and usual, real and virtual – something which cannot be experienced on any existing screen today.
Interactivity with computers or sensors is not important for this artwork. Rather, through the action of turning the globe jungle, the viewer can enjoy how the images appear and flicker, a onetime experience accompanied by physical sensation. The action of turning the globe jungle becomes the meeting point with the viewer’s own childhood memories. A space emerges where technological recording and memory are linked and naturally fused together. The installation acts as a bridge between memories and feelings beyond space and time. It stirs up rich imaginings and feelings of those who happen to be there, which in turn touches memories of the viewer’s youth as well as primordial memories through which Man knows the shape of Earth. This kind of system of exchange and circulation has true characteristics of “interactivity” as portrayed in this artwork.
