“A delicate soundscape, something between theater and performance, with finely tuned pandemonium: thin electrical wires, plugs and switches, a dish with water, microphone stands, a box of eggs…” — TheaterKrant, Holland
Wednesday, April 27th will bring some unique sound waves to Downtown Los Angeles. The Osaka-based Umeda creates surprising sound scores with an intriguing variety of found objects, inventions and environmental or architectural elements. Umeda creates his work through a dialogue with everyday tools and scraps, such as ropes, cans, plastic bottles, re-purposed machines and toy parts, creating elaborately related systems of cause-and-effect. Powered by gravity, wind, centrifugal force or falling objects, Umeda’s work often creates unpredictable, unstable sonic and visual environments. Places that at first glance seem nothing special, have countless characteristics found above the ceiling, or behind the wall, in lightning systems and structures, the wall-material, the construction of the building, etc.
UMEDA’S works have been shown internationally at museums and galleries, as well as outdoor locations such as abandoned buildings, lakes and mountain-tops. He has also made site-specific works at a hotel, factory, shopping street, and tunnel in Japan and abroad.
Human behavior and reaction are also treated as a component of the work, as Umeda selects people associated with the space to appear as extras. The audience is unconsciously involved in the installation piece, unaware that their actions have become part of it. Thus, the boundaries of what we are watching and listening to are blurred and our familiar scenery, possible accidents and audience’s behavior will be merged as a part of the performance. Every single breathtaking light, sudden accidental explosion and odd sound attributes to and engages with his everyday behavior, so the ordinary and the extraordinary cross and coincide, in a singular moment and space.
Working actively both in and outside of Japan, Tetsua Umeda has held a number of significant solo exhibitions including “Criterium 73: Tetsuya Umeda”, Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito (2008), “Hotel New Osorezan”, Ota Fine Arts Singapore, Singapore (2013), “Age0”, Breaker Project, Osaka (2014), and “Science of Superstition”, SonicProtest Festival, Montreuil (2015). Umeda has also participated in the “1st Aichi Triennale 2010: Arts and Cities”, Nagoya (2010); “Double Vision: Contemporary Art From Japan”, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow / Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa (2012); “Simple Interactions. Sound Art from Japan”, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde, Roskilde (2011); and is recently featured at “RhythmScape”, Gyoenggi Museum of Modern Art, Gyoenggi (2015) and “Sounds of Us”, Trafó Gallery, Budapest (2015-2016). http://www.siranami.com/
Touring support for Tetsuya Umeda is provided by the Japan Foundation through the Performing Arts JAPAN program.
Tickets and info: http://www.redcat.org/event/tetsuya-umeda
REDCAT/CalArts’ Downtown Center for Contemporary Arts
631 West 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA, 90012-2599
