Akeroyd Collection

Works

Shimabuku, Sunrise at Mt. Artsonje, 2007

In this 16mm footage, we see museum staff and the artist on the roof of the Artsonje Centre, Seoul, Korea where he was invited to do a project. It is 5.30 am and staff have been invited by the artist to gather on the roof for sunrise. During a research trip, Shimabuku discovered the unused roof space of the building and started to think about treating the museum like a mountain, with its roof as its peak. The artist invited exhibition staff to ‘climb’ the institution and gather together at dawn. As a reversal of one custom (the evening opening of an exhibition), it is also the (re)evaluation of another, more ancient one. A chef was invited to commemorate the moment and cook some shiny cutlass fish for the shiniest part of the day and the artist used the encounter to communicate to unknown beings and nature through such symbolism and ritual. We see him offering the animal up to the elements, its scales reflecting the light in quite a spectacular fashion. Through such studies of communicative and aesthetic traditions, Shimabuku proposes new languages and tools of communication and institutional working, recognising the role human interaction and ritual play in how such institutions both ancient and modern stratify us.

Medium8mm film transferred to DVD
Duration3 minutes 43 seconds
Editionof 5 + 2 APs