Number of Time in Coin-Locker

Miyajima completed the Graduate School of Fine Arts at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1986. His works employing LED have been acclaimed and his works were presented at exhibitions such as the Hara Annual in 1988 and Movement and Modern Art, held at this museum. He also participates in worldwide exhibitions such as Magicians of the Earth held at the Pompidou Center in 1989 and the Venice Biennale in 1999.

While still a postgraduate student, Miyajima presented works composed of waste machines such as televisions or photocopiers that continue to move at art galleries. From 1987, he began to use digital counters, in which numbers keep flashing on and off. The numerous counters arranged in various forms such as rings or lines each change at a different speed, indicating that innumerable flows of time exist. This work installed in a locker room that is in actual use consists of digital counters set at the speed of choice by 150 citizens of Saitama invited from the public. Each person’s signature appears on the back of the counter. Inside a coin locker, which could be regarded a symbol of the contemporary society, 150 different lifetimes continue to tick on perpetually.