“Rikomape” is a resumption of the reverence for the deities of the meandering river flows. During the urban development of Tokyo, the river Tone, as many others, had its flow completely transposed by a 60-year-long construction project. Its uncontrollable force was redirected and contained, ignoring where Tone’s spirit wants to go.
Of Ainu origin, the word rikomape means “a river that climbs up the mountain”, expressing an opposite and interspecific force of the river. This word was transformed into a sound, using the artist’s sound theory created in collaboration with the musician Tatsuro Murakami. Along with the word rikomape, the color of the weed nanohana (菜の花), which has been growing along the course of the Tone River since before it’s modification, was also transformed into a sound.
The sound resumes the cosmological cycle of rikomape and is played in continuous flow through a looped cassette tape. The work deals with the recreation and resumption of cosmological relations with the flow of the waters, the worship of the rivers, and the autonomy of their spirits, tracing a path that the artist calls the “ecology of beyond”
Exhibition's photos by Naoki Takehisa
____________________________
“Rikomape” trata da retomada da reverência às divindades dos fluxos de serpenteamento dos rios. De origem Ainu, a palavra significa “rio de sobe a montanha” e foi transformada em som juntamente com a cor da erva daninha nanohana (菜の花), que cresce ao longo do curso do rio Tone desde antes de sua modificação.
Durante o desenvolvimento urbano de Tóquio esse rio teve o seu fluxo completamente transposto por uma obra que durou 60 anos. Sua força incontrolável foi redirecionada e contida, ignorando para onde seu espírito quer ir.
O som produzido retoma o ciclo cosmológico dessa palavra e é tocado em fluxo contínuo por uma fita cassete em loop, tratando da recriação e retomada das relações cosmológicas com o fluxo das águas, a adoração dos rios e a autonomia de seus espíritos, traçando um caminho que a artista chama de “ecology of beyond”.
