My Play-Station


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MY PLAY-STATION by Tomoko Takahashi

22 February - 10 April 2005 Serpentine Gallery

Takahashi's installation only exists for the duration of the exhibition, it is purpose built for that space and will not be repeated in any other. She dismantled it herself during an event on the last day of exhibition where members of the public were invited to take away parts of the installation making it truly one-off.

Within her installations, Takahashi uses collected material, found and discarded objects. She then organises these objects within the space using a balance of chaos and order. In My Play-Station there are four distinct environments, each shown in a different section of the gallery.

Walking around the gallery it is hard to take everything in, there are so many objects to see as a whole and individually. At one view-point you are offered a device to 'zoom' in on the installation. Everything has its place and is not to be touched or moved by the public. You can look for hours and still see something you did not see before. The installation is however not only visual, it includes sound and movement, some of which I can only presume are triggered by your own movement around the space.

The emphiasis of Takahashi's work is not just the work itself, she also includes references to the time and labour involved. Little comments on walls and the floor relating to the construction, photographs of the building phase, an inventory of every piece included, notes she has hand-written, her plans - they all become a part of the installation.

Takahashi is essentially an obsessive collector, but every object is chosen carefully. "For the most part, she prefers used goods without logos or specific brand associations." Maybe a consious effort to avoid the corporate. She is giving these objects a new purpose all the while "highlight[ing] the prevailing western worship of the new". A comment on how as a society we throw away fully functioning items in preference to improved / updated versions. Then at the end of the exhibition she "returns the objects as durable goods rather than art objects and gives them yet another life."

Takahashi alters the context of the items in "what appears to be chaos actually follows a prescribed plan." Viewers are transformed from passive spectators into active partipcipants.

Article by Gemma Harris