Do we need sound to notice silence?

The starting point of Yasuhiro Chida’s work was the aesthetic approach to the Japanese concept of Ma (間, gap, pause, intermediate space), which focuses on the interim, pause, negative space, the void between things and the silence between sounds. He sees them not as something missing but as something positive.

In his poetic and minimalist installation, Chida places emphasis on the darkness between bright moments. A water droplet on the ceiling of the exhibition space slowly swells and upon reaching 0.04 millilitre, the surface tension of the water can no longer resist the force of gravity and the water droplet suddenly drips. The falling droplet passes through a point of light, and at the moment the two meet, the water droplet functions as a lens and a prism, scattering the light in the space.

Resembling the suikinkutsu (水琴窟) water harp in Japanese gardens – the sound of which is produced by water droplets flowing along a bamboo pole and then dripping – the central element of Chida’s work is also the alternation of slowly accumulating and dripping water droplets. In the exhibition space, the breathing of visitors slowly and involuntarily adapts to the slow and even rhythm of the falling water droplets.

Borbála Szalai