Video Spaces: Eight Installations
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
June 22-September 12, 1995


Teiji Furuhashi

Lovers



Computer-controlled, five-channel video/sound installation with five video projectors, eight-channel sound system, and slide projectors. Coproduced by the artist and Canon ARTLAB, Tokyo. Collection of the artist. Photo: Courtesy of the artist.



"Lover" is a common word, and lovers are a popular subject in art. As an image, a pair of lovers often suggests a castle of exclusion. With the sexual liberation of the last few decades, the word now has more to do with physical coupling than with the sublimity of "true love." AIDS has added a new dimension of wariness to this pairing.

The life-size dancers in Lovers are drained of life. Projected onto the black walls of a square room, the naked figures have a spectral quality. Their movements are simple and repetitive. Back and forth, they walk and run with animal grace. Their actions become familiar over time, so that it is a surprise when two of the translucent bodies come together in a virtual embrace. These ostensible lovers--more overlapping than touching--are not physically entwined.




Teiji Furuhashi was a cofounder of Dumb Type, an internationally recognized arts collective based in Kyoto. The group's multimedia collaborations are irreverent takes on popular culture and the rigid stratification of Japanese society. Photo: Shiro Takatani, courtesy of the artist.






Return to Video Spaces Home Page


[ Barry/Miskell ] [ Douglas ] [ Furuhashi ] [ Hill ]
[ Marker ] [ Odenbach ] [ Oursler ] [ Viola ]
[London, Introduction ] [ Delany, "High Involvement"]


Copyright 1995 by The Museum of Modern Art, New York