Mai Yamashita + Naoto Kobayashi are an artist unit who, while crossing media,  work mainly on video installations.

Collecting iron sand on the beach to make a spoon, birdwatching at Yankee Stadium in New York instead of watching baseball, or making a sculpture with their beloved dog Anne. The artists have realised rich ideas that explore alternatives to common values through unique methods involving uneconomical, inefficient and almost labor-like actions, and have rethought our relationship with the world and the structure of society. They have also tried to look at the world from a perspective that is less human-centric, through taking account of living things and the natural environment. Such works are even more thought-provoking today, when there is a need for coexistence with others, ecological awareness and transformation of existing social systems. Within the natural environment of the neighbourhood, Kurobe City Art Museum held their exhibition that encourages us to think about the fluctuating boundaries between human and nature in an active approach.

In a world of uncertainty

infinity~mirage (2021) is a project-based work in which a “m” shaped signboard was installed on the embankment of the Ikuji coast to make an “∞” occur by reversing the shape through the mirage [i] famous in Toyama Bay. A super-telephotographic camera was installed near the coast, 8 km away from the position of the signboard. During the exhibition period, a live streaming video taken through the camera was projected in the exhibition, and was streamed on the special exhibition website in parallel.

Live images draw out the infinite variety of phenomena in how the “m” shape’s appearance changes from day to day: facing upwards and downwards like chromosomes, being surrounded by luminous light, forming two round balls, being unable to be seen due to bad weather, or appearing as a “∞”. In contrast to the camera of Uozu Buried Forest Museum which shows the mirage as a whole, the angle of view close to the signboard allows us to see other phenomena on a full screen, such as the daily changes in the levels of the water surface, the colour of the landscape, the atmospheric fluctuations caused by mirages and heat hazes, the variations in perspective and resolution, and the transitions in weather and time.

Those views seemed beautiful at any moment, and it was a curious experience to move back and forth between the landscapes of everyday and extraordinary. However, the device of the live camera demonstrates that what we see is “here and now”. In other words, the transformation and uncertainty shown in infinity~mirage is the essence of nature or the world, and it makes us realise that we are living in such a condition in the first place.

This then expands our thoughts to both the micro and the macro world: life that keeps emerging and disappearing within a phenomenon in flux; the constant combination and separation of living and all other non-living matter; or the repetition of objects and subjects. In the painting which is a part of infinity~mirage, the artists have written the words of the scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal: “What is a man in Infinity?”  [ii] This vast question is open to the imagination of each viewer.

From outside to inside, inside to outside

The viewing of infinity~mirage in the Museum created a very important space for contemplating the mirage from a sensorial point of view.

On the other hand, the work can also be viewed through a telescope from a coast in the near distance, or by live streaming at home. You can also physically go to the embankment of Ikuji coast and see if you could also become a mirage in front of the “m” shaped signboard. Above all, viewing the sea and the Noto Peninsula in the distance in front of you seems to have added a Romantic and real experience of nature, evolving from a speculative act of viewing artworks and thinking about nature in a museum, towards an experiential act.

Thus, the works in the exhibition seemed to share a common mechanism, in which the outside landscape is cut out and displayed in the Museum, and the viewers’ perspectives are brought back to the outside. Referring to Pascal’s idea of man as a thinking reed [iii], the motif of Thinking Reed / Unthinking Reed (2021) reflects the 2 reeds in the reed beds surrounding the Museum. The monitor was installed by the windows, behind which the actual reed bed can be seen, opening to the landscape. Also, in Release of mineral water (2004), in which the artists travelled to return mineral water to its source in Germany, a water server was installed alongside the film. The water was collected from the underground of the alluvial fan of the Kurobe River, and allowed viewers to explore thoughts such as where the water came from while drinking it.

In the exhibition, the landscapes of the inside and outside of the Museum were connected to the ground.

Furthermore, an experiment like infinity~mirage can add a lot of fun to our daily life. In autumn and winter, when the mirage appears in Toyama Bay, the temperature drops dramatically. Even when the weather is bad, cold and depressing, thinking of a possibility of being able to see “∞” today might have made us feel positive.

The artists’ imagination/creativity found in the world/everyday life will surely give us essential richness and bring us the energy to imagine/create our future life.

Chikako Shakudo, Kurobe City Art Museum
Translation :Naoko Mabon (WAGON)

[i]“A mirage is a phenomenon in which light is refracted in the air so that the landscape at a distance of 5 to 20 km appears different from what it actually is. There are 2 types of mirage: superior mirages (i.e. spring mirage) and inferior mirages (i.e. winter mirage).”
From Uozu Buried Forest Museum website.
[ii] From Uozu Buried Forest Museum website.
[iii]　Blaise Pascal, A Selection from Pascal’s Thoughts, trans. by H. L. Sidney Lear, London: Rivingtons, 1878, p.126.

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Mai Yamashita + Naoto Kobayashi: A mirage.
25 September – 19 December 2021
Organized by: Kurobe City Art Museum [Public Interest Incorporated Foundation Kurobe International Cultural Center]
Co-organized by: City of Kurobe, Kurobe City Board of Education, and THE KITANIPPON SHIMBUN
Sponsored by: Japan Arts Council, ASAHI GROUP ARTS FOUNDATION, The Mitsubishi UFJ Trust Cultural Foundation, and Nomura Foundation
With the special cooperation of: Uozu Buried Forest Museum, The Marine Station. “Mirage”(ShinKiro), Takuro Someya Contemporary Art, Uozu Mirage Research, and Kurobe History and Folklore Museum
Under the auspices of: Kitanihon Broadcasting Co., Ltd., Toyama Television Broadcasting Co., Ltd., TULIP-TV INC., milare TV, and Niikawa community broadcast
Special website

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Mai Yamashita (Born 1976 in Chiba, Japan)
Naoto Kobayashi (Born 1974 in Chiba, Japan)

Mai Yamashita and Naoto Kobayashi began working together officially in 2001. After graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts, they moved to Germany and participated in residency programs at Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin, 2010), ISCP (NY, 2011), MuseumsQuartier (Wien, 2014) among others, and currently live and work in Chiba, Japan. Their work has been exhibited internationally, including at KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki (FIN, 2006); MARCO Vigo (ESP, 2010); Aichi Triennale (JP, 2010); Kunsthalle Göttingen (solo, DE, 2011); MOCA Taipei (TW, 2011); Yokohama Triennale (JP, 2011); Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort (NL, 2013); Oyama City Kurumaya Museum of Art, Tochigi (solo, JP, 2015); Art Tower Mito Contemporary Art Gallery, Ibaraki (JP, 2015); Centre Pompidou Malaga (ES, 2018); Setouchi Triennale 2019 (JP, 2019); and Art Gallery of New South Wales (AU, 2020).