Rie Nakajima is a sculptor living in London. She has been working on creating installations and performances by responding to physical characters of spaces using a combination of motorised devices and found objects. (Sound Arts Lecture Series | CRiSAP research centre, UAL, 2023)

She is creating extensive interactive mechanical acoustic sound sculptures consisting from very random objects. By positioning various objects in different scenarios, combinations and flooring she can achieve very different results in terms of sound and loudness. During the performance objects are positioned in random places across the whole space where she is. Sounds of ‘mechanical creatures’ are slowly taking over the whole space and the audience is continuously fully immersed in the strange surround orchestra with an ongoing tension created by adding new and new sounds coming from different directions. Rie doesn’t like to call them ‘her objects’ and likes to give them space to express themselves thus she realised over the time that there is no need for her to name objects as well as her pieces and performances.

Rie points out that in Japan the culture around sculptures is very technical and material based but after she moved to London to study sculpture at Chelsea School of Arts further she decided for a different avenue and started experiment with including sound into sculpture. Later she introduced element of performance when she joined Slade School of Fine Arts in London too. When she perform her sculptures she doesn’t have set any intentions or theme. Performance is improvised and always evolve into very different results and scenarios also because of the audience which often has its own unconscious input based on position and interaction in the space.

I really appreciate ecological and recycling approach in her art. She doesn’t like to use expensive objects or materials. The whole approach is very compact. Rie mentioned that she never had her studio and the whole ‘sculpture scene’ is transported in her luggage.

Bibliography:

Sound Arts Lecture Series | CRiSAP research centre, UAL (2023). Available at: https://crisap.org/research/projects/sound-arts-lecture-series/.