Mika Tajima: Æther

By Borusan Contemporary

Mika Tajima, New Museum

In her sculptures, paintings, videos, and installations, Japanese-American artist Mika Tajima (b. 1975, Los Angeles, lives and works in New York) interrogates the techniques and technologies developed to shape and control the human body—its physicality, productivity, and imperceptible desires. From architectural systems to ergonomic design to psychographic data, her works operate in the space between the transient and the tangible, and highlight the complex networks of power and submission that we experience in relationship to our physical bodies and virtual selves.

AetherBorusan Contemporary

An online exhibition by Borusan Contemporary

Mika Tajima: Æther is organized in collaboration with the New Museum, New York, and curated by Margot Norton.

Human Synth (Istanbul)Borusan Contemporary

Human Synth (Istanbul) 2018

Human Synth (Istanbul) (2018), a video installation, presents animated plumes of smoke that meander unpredictably within the suspended screens, shifting shape, blooming, and dissipating, unable to be contained or captured.

Human Synth (Istanbul) Human Synth (Istanbul), Mika Tajima, 2018/2018, From the collection of: Borusan Contemporary
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Pranayama EBorusan Contemporary

Pranayama E

Pranayama E (2017) is part of a series of wooden sculptures modeled after orthotic devices and punctured with chromed hot tub jets.

Pranayama E Pranayama E, Mika Tajima, 2017/2017, From the collection of: Borusan Contemporary
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Force TouchBorusan Contemporary

Force Touch (Manu Dextra Sinistra, Horizontal)

Installed on a large wall, Force Touch (Manu Dextra Sinistra, Horizontal) (2018) presents a configuration of gold-chromed Jacuzzi jets, which emit forced air and bring viewers into contact with an invisible pressure.

Force Touch Force Touch, Mika Tajima, 2018/2018, From the collection of: Borusan Contemporary
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Social ChairBorusan Contemporary

Social Chair

Social Chair (2016) continues Tajima’s ongoing investigation of the ways built environments can manipulate and control human activity. This piece is based on a particular modular design by Yves Béhar for Herman Miller, titled “Public Office,” which aims to transform corporate environments into places for collaboration. The piece references intentional casualizations of the working environment, where it meshes with every aspect of life, from waiting rooms and lounges, to transit stations and cafes.

Social Chair Social Chair, Mika Tajima, 2016/2016, From the collection of: Borusan Contemporary
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Negative Entropy Negative Entropy by Mika TajimaBorusan Contemporary

Negative Entropy series

Tajima’s Negative Entropy series (2012—ongoing) are textile paintings, which interpret acoustic data into abstract compositions. These woven acoustic portraits of different sites of production are made on a Jacquard loom, a machine created in 1804 that industrialized the process of manufacturing textiles with the use of punch cards to transmit data, and an invention that many historians consider an important step in the development of computer and machine programming.

Negative Entropy (Digital Ocean, NYC2 Super Micro, Blue, Quad), 2018/2018, From the collection of: Borusan Contemporary
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Negative Entropy (Kazue Kobata, Blue, Double) (2015/2015)Borusan Contemporary

Meridian (Istanbul)

A hanging light installation comprised of networked LED lights, Meridian (Istanbul) (2018) responds in real time to aggregate and quantified human sentiment scraped from social media. The shifting color of the lights responds in real time to the collective mood of the city of Istanbul, which is evaluated by a computer linguistics program, which analyzes live textual data taken from Twitter feeds, and then processed through an algorithm developed to translate data into light color.

Meridian Meridian, Mika Tajima, 2018/2018, From the collection of: Borusan Contemporary
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Credits: Story

Photographed by Özge Balkan.

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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