OFF THE VINE: True: Graham wins an award for being a real piece of art

The Happening 2000 is Tokyo's major annual contemporary design exhibition and features interior, fashion and visual designers from Japan, the UK and France. Every year, Dutch magazine Frame hands out an award for the most innovative exhibition, and this year they awarded two. The installation at Saatchi & Saatchi Japan was one of the winners and was a collaboration between Kei Tominaga, Joelle Boudet (a Tokyo-based video artist) and Saatchis "Inspirer" Graham Thomas. The chairs were constructed of wood and latex, and when you sat on them they would emit a bizarre noise. There was a video set-up using a fixed live camera mixed with a pre-recorded film of the same scene with perfect synchronisation of the image. On the pre-recorded film, Graham acted out a scenario, moving around the gallery, sitting in the chairs, conversing with thin air and other things. "By mixing the two images a real person, walking around the gallery could see themselves and me on screen but, only themselves in the gallery," he said. "They could sit in one of the chairs and I might be in another, seemingly talking to them. They could even 'sit' on me. All this time, the real me, dressed the same as I was in the video might be sitting in my glass office so that they could see two of me. If I came out into the gallery suddenly there would be two of me on screen." Graham sent us some photos, and added helpfully, "This may be less clear on the page than it was in-situ." Vine guesses you just had to be there.

Sign In

Trouble signing in?

Reset Password: Click here

Contact Customer Support at

Customerservice@campaignasia.com