An impromptu trip to the Ikon on Sunday (08/03/09) reminded me just how lucky we are to have such a fantastic contemporary gallery in Birmingham. As always the exhibitions were visually stunning with bizarre paintings and hallucinogenic film contributing to the decline of my already fragile, post party, condition.
The real find of the day however was a Japanese man named Ujino and his misfit band of sonically misshapen home appliances. Ujino is an artist, sculptor and musician hailing from Tokyo and has exhibited his ’Rotators’ in some of the most respected galleries (and warehouses) throughout the world.
The core of Ujino’s sound sculpture is the ‘Rotorhead‘, two turntables and a collection of old vinyl to which he has skilfully glued some bits of coloured pencil. The idea is that as the vinyl spin, the bits of pencil hit a set of switches attached to a ‘bridge’ that is placed over the turntable, this then sends an on/of signal to the remaining ‘Rotators‘. The bridge consists of three switches, or tracks as Ujino calls them, each of which represents a different rhythm section, transmitting a different set of signals to his home appliance orchestra.
The orchestra, on this occasion, was made up of a hairdryer, a drill and two food blenders, one of which was strapped to a guitar and hung from the ceiling but previous incarnations have used cars, radios, televisions and a plethora of everyday items all of which produce a unique, circuit bent sound.
If the insanity of his sonic arsenal is not enough for you, during his performance, Ujino expertly blended a banana and ice cream smoothie using one of the ‘Rotators‘, handing glasses out to the expectant crowd.
Ujino welds the two worlds of music and art together in a kind of post industrial techno experiment and the sound produced is unique, so if you get chance to see the man in action it's definitely worth your while, not least for free refreshments!
Check out Ujino here
And the Ikon Gallery
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