images © 2023 Choi+Shine Architects
The Power of One
明鏡止水
Ritual is an act of transforming a habit into a ceremonial occasion, a contemplative order.
Water has a ceremonial significance in many cultures, creating a reflection that completes the reality, or rather, an ethereal levitation of the reality.
Combined, the project invites the audience to enter, take a procession and a ceremonial search for an image.
Funding
City of Fukuoka
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum
Design
Jin Choi and Thomas Shine
Structural Design
Thomas Shine
Mitsuo Tsuda
Installation
Meiken Sangyo Co., Ltd
Mitsuo Tsuda
Makoto Hirabayashi
Kumpei Miyata
Shohei Kato
Zen Kumagai
Isamu Ogata
Keiji Koga
Koji Tsutsumi
Hirohito Yamaguchi
Akizora Yamaguchi
FAAM staff and Volunteers
Special thanks to:
The Mayor’s Office
Nakao Tomomichi, Curator
Midori Miyakawa, Coordinator for int’l Relations
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum Staff
Tomomichi Nakao
Ayaka Matsumoto
Yukako Sakai
Rina Igarashi
Masae Kamachi
Midori Miyakawa
& Everyone at FAAM
Coordinator’s Team Aperto
Hatsune Miyamoto
Miki Matsuo
Shoko Tsukita
Kazuki Saito
Takeshi Jono
Kenichiro Egami
Ajibi Volunteers
Fukuoka Art Cafe (Yoshie Yamamoto)
When the audience steps in, they becomes a part of the artwork, activating and transforming the work as they move through the space.
The recognition of one’s power to change is an important aspect of the project; the active engagement enables the empowerment through the process.
Only the moment of pause however, will calm the water and offer the perfect reflection of oneself, a clear vision and ultimately, peace.
Water creates the mirror image of the real, and completes the whole in harmony. One cannot be perceived alone or cannot exist without the other.
Between the tangible and habitable real and its reflection on the water resides a space. The audience occupy this space and connects the two.
Audience movement creates ever changing images of ripples and shadow.
It is important to recognise one’s power to create and one’s power to change .
The design and images of The Power of One are copyright 2019 - 2023 Choi+Shine Architects and may not be used without written permission.
The work is comprised of simplified geometric lace forms found in iconic Japanese temples and shrines, detached and suspended over the dark water.
Generally, lace is small in scale, and often private, used as an symbols for a special celebration, milestones of life.
Shown in a large scale in a public place, the lace creates a sense of surprise which contributes to our collective memory.
The lace is hand made with local volunteers, which makes the process of making art as important and meaningful as its completion.
The lace symbolically weaves different people and cultures, while physically, the openings in the surface create patterns of light against dark, a juxtaposition of a permeable surface on different visual layers.
The patterns, interpreted from Japanese architecture and the local cultural heritage of Fukuoka, are incorporated into the lace, creating a repetitive mathematical geometry which provokes one’s search for the recognisable and leads to the meditative journey.
Photo Credit: ©KAWASAKI Ittoku
The porous lace membranes form windows through which we re-discover the beauty
around us.
