Curator Makino helps a visitor experience EARS WITH CHAIR (on the wall)

One of those works, EARS WITH CHAIR (on the wall), is by Fujimoto Yukio (b.1950). Fujimoto first drew attention with his performances using electronic devices in the 1970s, and since the mid-1980s he has been creating sound objects that connect “sound” to “form.” In this experiential piece, when a visitor sits in the chair and puts the tubes to their ears, the sounds around them change due to vibrations in the air, and this also dramatically alters how they see their surroundings. “Because it’s set up in an open area, I often see people who are passing by stop to enjoy the work, listening to the sounds in amazement,” says Makino.

“This work sprang forth from a single question: how do things sound to a rabbit with long hears? It’s made up of sections of the kind of plastic pipe that’s used for rain gutters and Fujimoto's favorite chair. When a visitor puts the pipe openings to their ears, the sounds around them change in surprising ways. And even though the scene before them is the same as usual, the visitor might get a strange feeling of being transported to another world. I think that this is a work that that spurs people to imagine how everyone perceives things differently, for example how we hear things and how we see things. I’d very much like people to come to the museum to experience it.”

We all live in the same world, but what we see and how we see it varies from person to person. The surprising nature of this work, created 30 years ago, may resonate with the people of today, who tend to be immersed in the world of social media and the internet, where we sometimes criticize or reject people with different ideas or viewpoints.

Curator Makino Yuji’s thoughts about his favorite pieces

Makino specializes in contemporary art and he is particularly interested in art that is connected to sound. We asked him to talk about the characteristics of Fujimoto Yukio’s work and to tell us about his favorite piece.
“Fujimoto Yukio combines objects like everyday items close at hand to create works that spur changes in visual and auditory perception. The objects are modified only minimally, and the works are vivid and elegant. His works and installations are full of small surprises.
MUSIC DUST BOX is one of his works that I am fond of. A wound-up music box is placed on the lid that’s balanced like a seesaw on top of a stainless steel bin with a mirror-like finish. The music box falls into the trash can while playing - and the sound continues for a while after it tumbles. But my favorite is EARS WITH CHAIR. That is also a piece that perfectly shows the characteristics Fujimoto's work, in that the artist has minimal involvement with the objects, yet (or perhaps even because of this minimal involvement) the transformation of perception is maximized.”

Makino loves art that uses sound, and at the end of our visit he had one more thing to tell us.
"The music played when we open and close Takamatsu Art Museum each day is produced using sanukite, a stone that produces a high, clear sound when struck, produced in Kagawa Prefecture and a few other areas. The music was created by composer Miwa Masahiro to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the museum’s opening in 2018. It’s a unique song that completely rethinks the traditional museum opening and closing music. To hear it for yourself, please come visit the Takamatsu Art Museum.”