Art Basel and the ICC to present a new large-scale public light installation by Tatsuo Miyajima in Hong Kong.
Tatsuo Miyajima presented a large- scale public light installation during Art Basel Hong Kong 2016 in March. Each night from March 21 to 26 ‘Time Waterfall’ was shown across the entire façade of Hong Kong’s iconic 490 meter high International Commerce Centre (ICC) on the Kowloon harbor front.
‘Time Waterfall’ is a work by the artist which aims to convey the eternal luminance of human life, expressing an ethos of ‘living in the present’. The work comprises the natural numbers one to nine, which cascades down the face of the ICC, while never reaching zero. The continuous counting down symbolizes life, while the zero implied by the extinction of light acts as a metaphor for death. Each digit is of different sizes, and each cascades at its own speed, creating a number of layers that each represents a trajectory of individual lives.
This work continues the artist’s signature use of light-emitting diode (LED) counters to demonstrate his three fundamental concepts – ‘Keep Changing’; ‘Connect with Everything’; and ‘Continue Forever’. The absence of zero in his works refers to the Buddhist concept of ‘Sunya’, which symbolizes the void or non-existence. The use of numbers, as abstract and conceptual symbols, becomes Miyajima’s universal language, allowing his work to be appreciated and adapted internationally.
‘Time Waterfall’ was co-commissioned by Art Basel and the International Commerce Centre in Hong Kong.