Sign in
Installation Art

RECONNECTING: A Vision of Unity (Capsule Review)

Laura Hess

• 1 min read
RECONNECTING: A Vision of Unity (Capsule Review)
A large white gallery space is filled with brightly colored hula hoops, which are interconnected. Hoops skim the floor and hang from the ceiling. While there is a central mass of hoops, they also line some walls of the gallery. There are a few, tunnel-like pathways through the hoops. In one of these pathways a mother crouches down next to her young child, pointing up at the sculpture of hoops.
Photo: JAPAN HOUSE

[Original publication: No Proscenium, 6/22/21]

Get Laura Hess’s stories in your inbox

Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.

SubscribeSubscribe

Located in the Hollywood & Highland retail complex, JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles includes a gallery, event venue, library, cafe, and a forthcoming restaurant. An initiative of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is “dedicated to highlighting the best of Japanese art and culture.” London and Sao Paulo host the two other hubs.

RECONNECTING: A Vision of Unity by Japanese artist Kengo Kito opened last week. As Kito’s first exhibition in the U.S., this site-specific installation consists of intertwined hula hoops, embodying themes of connection and reconnection. Symbolically referencing this year of reintegration, 2,021 linked hoops traverse the entire gallery space.

As a modern and colorful object of whimsy, play, and joy, the hula hoop meshes beautifully with traditional Zen Buddhist practices. “The Japanese word kū — often translated into English as ‘emptiness’ — is used in Zen Buddhism to describe a dynamic and constantly evolving state — not so much empty as filled with untapped potential,” as explained by JAPAN HOUSE.

With two pathways through the hoop landscape, the installation vacillates in its density and composition. It feels both light and substantial, static and fluid. A key part of the experience is watching other viewers move through the gallery. At times, their silhouettes are lost in the mass and then they reemerge from the constellation of color — a visual expression of hope and potential, indeed.