images © 2023 Choi+Shine Architects

The Power of One

明鏡止水

Ritual is an act of transforming a habit into a ceremonial occasion, a contemplative order. 


Water has a ceremonial significance in many cultures, creating a reflection that completes the reality, or rather, an ethereal levitation of the reality. 


Combined, the project invites the audience to enter, take a procession and a ceremonial search for an image.

Funding

City of Fukuoka

Fukuoka Asian Art Museum


Design

Jin Choi and Thomas Shine


Structural Design

Thomas Shine

Mitsuo Tsuda


Installation 

Meiken Sangyo Co., Ltd

Mitsuo Tsuda
Makoto Hirabayashi

Kumpei Miyata

Shohei Kato

Zen Kumagai

Isamu Ogata

Keiji Koga

Koji Tsutsumi

Hirohito Yamaguchi

Akizora Yamaguchi

FAAM staff and Volunteers


Special thanks to:

The Mayor’s Office

Nakao Tomomichi, Curator

Midori Miyakawa, Coordinator for int’l Relations


Fukuoka Asian Art Museum Staff

Tomomichi Nakao 

Ayaka Matsumoto

Yukako Sakai

Rina Igarashi

Masae Kamachi

Midori Miyakawa

& Everyone at FAAM


Coordinator’s Team Aperto
Hatsune Miyamoto

Miki Matsuo

Shoko Tsukita

Kazuki Saito

Takeshi Jono

Kenichiro Egami


Ajibi Volunteers


Fukuoka Art Cafe (Yoshie Yamamoto)


All the volunteers

 When the audience steps in, they becomes a part of the artwork, activating and transforming the work as they move through the space. 


The recognition of one’s power to change is an important aspect of the project; the active engagement enables the empowerment through the process. 


Only the moment of pause however, will calm the water and offer the perfect reflection of oneself, a clear vision and ultimately, peace.

Water creates the mirror image of the real, and completes the whole in harmony. One cannot be perceived alone or cannot exist without the other.

Between the tangible and habitable real and its reflection on the water resides a space. The audience occupy this space and connects the two.

Audience movement creates ever changing  images of ripples and shadow. 

 It is important to recognise one’s power to create and one’s power to change .

The design and images of The Power of One are copyright 2019 - 2023 Choi+Shine Architects and may not be used without written permission.

The work is comprised of simplified geometric lace forms found in iconic Japanese temples and shrines, detached and suspended over the dark water. 


Generally, lace is small in scale, and often private, used as an symbols for a special celebration, milestones of life. 


Shown in a large scale in a public place, the lace creates a sense of surprise which contributes to our collective memory.

The lace is hand made with local volunteers, which makes the process of making art as important and meaningful as its completion. 


The lace symbolically weaves different people and cultures, while physically, the openings in the surface create patterns of light against dark, a juxtaposition of a permeable surface on different visual layers.

The patterns, interpreted from Japanese architecture and the local cultural heritage of Fukuoka, are incorporated into the lace, creating a repetitive mathematical geometry which provokes one’s search for the recognisable and leads to the meditative journey.

Photo Credit: ©KAWASAKI Ittoku

The porous lace membranes form windows through which we re-discover the beauty 

around us.

The images and design  copyright 2016 - 2024   Choi+Shine Architects, LLC.  All rights reserved. 

The designs, artworks and images on this page are subject to copyright, patent and/or trademark protection.

Contact:  Choi+Shine Architects for written permission for image use.

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