Programs

T05

Town

Chiho Hayashi「Parallel Worlds」
Birthday of the Dancing Buddha

Birthday of the Dancing Buddha
2013, Video 6:16 minutes

[Date]
May 27 (Sat), 10:00 – 28 (Sun), 18:00
[Place]
ignoppor, 1st Floor
[Participation fee]
Free
This world exists through our continued imagination. The 2 video works in this exhibition are “It might not be there anymore”, where the earth recites countless facts from a human perspective, and “Birthday of the Dancing Buddha”, in which life and death circulate like a delightful nightmare. All life seems to exist in the same world, yet it lives in different dimensions. This exhibition puts forth a world in which the visible and the invisible are connected through a myriad of facts and the crossings of life and death.

“Birthday of the Dancing Buddha”
Is living in the present moment a feeling closer to life or death? The red curtain opens and the story begins with the appearance of an old man. When the Rahotsu (spiral curls of hair) wake up, they notice a crack in the abdomen of the Great Buddha (a metaphor for the birth of life), and perceive the pulse of life that resides there. The world begins to go haywire with the birth of the luminous Buddha, and the bewildered Rahotsu dance together in a blessing for the birth of life under the guidance of the Buddha. However, the Buddha is abruptly taken to heaven, and this ridiculous and dreamlike story continues to repeat itself as the red curtain opens and closes.

ARTISTS

Chiho Hayashi

Born in Tokyo in 1988, Hayashi received her PhD in Fine Arts from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2018. She primarily creates video works with a handmade feel based on the theme of “transformation” in the mythological sense, and she herself frequently appeared in her early works. At first glance, the works are erotic and grotesque, but her style is also humorous, seen from multiple angles and aerial viewpoints. Major exhibitions include the 17th Asian Art Biennial Bangladesh 2016, Roppongi Crossing 2019 Exhibition, and Festival Seni Media Internasional 2019 (National Art Museum of Indonesia).