About "etude"
The word "etude" usually refers to the musical compositions to be practiced for achieving certain technical abilities of playing musical instruments, such as "etude for piano," or "etude for left hand," and so on. However, Mamoru's "etude" usually derive from the awareness of the subtle sound from everyday objects and materials, which are subsequently numbered and realized in various forms of works. They provide opportunities to its spectators to explore and "practice" alternative uses of everyday objects and practices. An important factor of the etude series is that the work is composed with the audience experience. For example, mamoru visit residents houses in Canada and borrow their everyday objects such as hangers and glasses to realize the sound art. Recent performance was composed by audience's "eating and drinking" which can be said "relational art" in a way. About exhibition
The video "etude no.7 variation for orange-soda" will be premiered at this exhibition. It exposes, certainly with a humor, a ceremonial procedure of altering the use of a straw from drinking orange-soda that are purchased at a grocery store, into making sound. A plastic straw is transformed into an artwork with a simple action, generating a high frequency random sound with a gentle breath. Mamoru will also set up a bar in the exhibition space where people can experience and "play" the variation for "orange-soda." Mamoru's "original straw" that were produced with a local factory in Japan in 2007 after his research for the ideal straw in terms of sound, will be exhibited along with the documents of the "World Wide Straw Foundation (project)", under which he handed about 1000 straws to people in 5 different countries. The "new model" of his straw will also be premiered at the exhibition. In the small space of the gallery, a video work "etude no.12 variation for eating Norino-tsukudani together" will be installed. The image were originally taken at the workshop-party that took place in the gallery itself in 2009. This exhibition will be the first and full exhibition of him in Japan. At the opening, Mamoru will demonstrate the variation for "orange-soda" and serve some special cocktails to people. Artist’s profile
Mamoru Okuno was borin in Osaka in 1977. He majored in music performance and graduated from The City College of The City University of New York. After years of performing improvised music, and exhibiting sound installation in various places in Japan and overseas, Mamoru has developed a series of works "etude" that transforms everyday objects and practices into "sound art" or "means to create sound art" by decoding/recodind them. The etude series has been exhibited and performed at MUMOK(Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien/Vienna), quartier21(Museum Quartier/Vienna), SCHELTEMA(Leiden), La Chambre Blanche(Quebec), Diapason Gallery(New York City), Yuka Contemporary(Tokyo), B-312(Montreal) and various other places in Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto and other cities. He will take part in EXPERIMENTAL SOUND, ART & PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL at Tokyo Wonder Site in Feb 2010.
Artist's website：http://www.afewnotes.com * The text provided by YUKA CONTEMPORARY.