4/5
Sound And Vision
@ Museum Of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan.
Magnum, like his 'Opus', the late, great Ryuichi Sakamoto was more than music. The classic composer, and Japan's answer to the dearly departed Ennio Morricone, scored all sorts of sounds, sure. From the electronic (his Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) group), to the soundtrack (like the Oscar winning Alejandro G. Iñárritu movie 'The Revenant', starring Leonardo DiCaprio, changing the landscape of cinematic music). Yet his art hit even harder to the heart than all of that. The death of this dearly departed artist subdued a reserved Japan even more. Sure, he was in ill-health, but at 71, it seemed far too soon for a man who was looking his most iconic in later year glasses and shades of grey. Still pioneering new worlds of sound. Holding quarantined meetings in Tokyo's Park Hyatt Hotel in Shinjuku (instantly recognizable in its rooms for being made famous by Sofia Coppola's classic 'Lost In Translation' starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson) with Suga Of South Korean pop sensation BTS, as they crafted a classic collaboration. He wasn't done. Real artists and their art never are.
In his passing, Sakamoto left us with so much more. Just like the 'seeing sound, hearing time' exhibition that you can now catch in the MOT of the Museum Of Contemporary Art, here in Tokyo, Japan. Overlooked by the stirring and strong structure of the Tokyo SkyTree. And what a moment of truth this really is, in the amazing architecture of a concrete building I haven't seen since corona. The last time being for an epic exhibit from the Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, matching pop artist Yokoo Tadanori and his wonderful work that has inspired everyone from Yuki Mishima to The Beatles. Here, Sakamoto's showcase shows collaborations with many an amazing artist. Shiro Takatani, Daito Manabe, Carsten Nicolai, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Zakkubalan and Toshio Iwai. Not to mention a special collaboration with Fujiko Nakaya. And, yes, if you've already taken this in fellow Tokyoites, that is the one and only Tilda Swinton sleeping in a motel room, hauntingly like only she can. Mirroring her latest movie of 'The Room Next Door' with Julianne Moore and director Pedro Almodóvar. All marching along in a shadow, like the last TeamLab Borderless digital exhibition projected onto Kanazawa Castle. As timelessly traditional and future forward as this Tokyo home itself.
The actor, composer, record producer and keyboardist hits another note as an artist who transcends space and time, not to mention the hereafter, with what he shows our eyes and ears. Speaking to us from the great beyond with the prose of poetry and jarring and beautiful soundscapes that awake all of our senses and show us life is but a dream. Coming to us just before saying Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, this epic exhibition, which is drawing more crowds than crossing the streets of Shibuya, will march forwards until the end of next month. And you should catch it, whilst you can, because its meaningful message will stay with you for much longer after. This library of sound, drawing from Ryuichi's reservoir, features outside and inside installations. The foggy smoke outside, near the speakers, influencing the black mirrors of the Instagram crowd. But from the iPads and phones of his home and studio life, it's the perfect piano standing on its own that will move you to tears like seeing the John Lennon one at The Beatles Story, from Tokyo, to Liverpool, what a way to go (imagine). Especially when you learn what it survived. All before you see Sakamoto's own one, played perfectly, powerfully and poignantly by the man himself in the silhouette of a haunting hologram. This is the closest you can get to what we lost. And what we will if we don't see sound and hear time in the perfect harmony of what means everything to you and me. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
