Clutching at straws, and making music | TABlog | Tokyo Art Beat

John Cage discovered there was no such thing as silence when he sat in a noiseproof anechoic chamber and heard for the first time the cacophonous sounds of his own body, including the ‘high’ sound of the blood’s circulation and the ‘low’ sound of the nervous system. In 1952 he wrote what he considered to be his best composition, 4’33”. Although commonly perceived to be four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence, it actually consists of the perpetual sounds of the surrounding environment, which the audience is made sensitive to as the performer creates as little noise as possible.

In a similar vein, Mamoru Okuno is interested in making people aware of the sounds they hear all the time but never listen to. His recent exhibition at YUKA CONTEMPORARY in Tokyo had him preaching the unique sonic values of orange juice and soda, as well as continuing to spread the good word about the instrumental possibilities of plastic drinking straws. The show was part of his ongoing live, participatory series “etude for everyday objects and practices”, which have in the past involved listening to things like melting ice cubes or scrunched-up clingwrap, and usually include shared consumption of food or drink in some form.

Mamoru says his work is informed by the likes of Michel de Certeau and Nicolas Bourriaud, but also by Japan’s ancient art of the tea ceremony, as reformed by Sen no Rikyu in the 16th Century. Rikyu advocated the use of humble, everyday materials, which would be invested with high spiritual and aesthetic tenets through their inclusion in the rituals. Incorporating anything from performance to architecture, garden/interior design, flower arrangement and ceramics, The Way of Tea is founded on unscripted human exchange and could be considered one of the truest forms of multidisciplinary, interactive and ephemeral live art.

If people react to Mamoru’s work with “I could do that”, he knows he’s on the right track. His simple aim is to facilitate new experiences of everyday objects, and thereby position the individual as creator of their own experience.

Mamoru is currently growing his own vegetables in his room at Tokyo Wonder Site (where he has a one-year residency) for his 36th etude, ‘water and dry earth / variation for growing plants’, based on the subtle, fleeting sound of dry plants being watered.

This article first appeared on the blog Big In Japan! and is reproduced here with permission. TABlog also published another review of a Mamoru Okuno performance in 2009.