Slog
News & ArtsMonday, February 8, 2010
Visual Art Currently Hanging: Robert Hodgin
Posted by Jen Graves on Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 2:43 PM
San Francisco artist/coder Robert Hodgin has only one memory of the time he lived in Japan from age 3 to 5. When Lele Barnett (formerly of McLeod Residence) asked him to create a work of art for the show Cultural Transcendence at Wing Luke Asian Museum, he made a piece out of this memory.
The piece is called Infinite Views of Mount Fuji. It is a video tour through a foggy landscape of bamboo forests and balls of fire, and it operates not like a movie (which would loop) but like a video game that is playing itself in real time. You never see the same view twice, but it feels like you're circling something. All of Japanese art, in fact, is haunted by endless circlings of Fuji.
The label on the wall next to the projection reads:
His mother, from Japan, and his father, many times removed from Scotland, led him along a path in thick fog. The path was paved, and there was no one around. Eventually they stopped at a little stand so his dad could buy a walking stick shaped like a samurai practice sword.Recently, Hodgin asked his mother about that day. It turns out it never happened. They were never on Mount Fuji, there was no path, no fog, and no quaint shack for tourists.
An early test version.
Fuji test footage from flight404 on Vimeo.
Advertisement
Most Commented on Slog
-
Hating People Doesn't Make Them Thinner by Jen Graves
-
Los Angeles Gay Bar Bans Bachelorette Parties Until Marriage Equality Is Attained by David Schmader
-
Fill in the Blank by Grant Brissey
-
This Reminds Me of the Great Calculator Scare of the Late '70s/Early '80s by David Schmader
-
Idiot Tries to Defend Bigoted Anti-Gay-Marriage Preacher on Anderson Cooper by Paul Constant
-
Six Moms with Too Much Time on Their Hands and a Shitty Website Decide to Fight Gay Superheroes by Paul Constant
-
What the Hell Is Wrong With Seattle's Pride Parade? by Dominic Holden
-
The Saturday Morning News by Unpaid Intern
-
Why Mayor McGinn's Wife Canceled Her Family's Seattle Times Subscription by Eli Sanders
-
NYC Man Ticketed for Not Riding in the Bike Lane by Jonathan Golob
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Comments (1) RSS