Yutaka Kikutake Gallery is pleased to present “datum,” a solo exhibition of works by Norimichi Hirakawa from February 24^th to March 25^th, 2017. Based on the theme of beauty in higher dimensional space, “datum” is a project comprising of video and sound, which Hirakawa began to develop after his residency at the Kavli IPMU (Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe). The prototype for the project was presented at the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art in October 2016, followed by an audio-visual installation at Moerenuma Park in Sapporo from February 16^th to 19^th this year. This exhibition features a series of print works from the project. In the same manner as the installation, Hirakawa appropriates movie data as the material for his prints. The pixels, essentially the minimum unit of the data, are treated as points within the 6-dimensional Euclidean space designated by X, Y, R, G, B, T, and are rotated within the same space, enabling mutual convertibility between the gradation in curvature and color tone on the two-dimensional plane, and the continuity within the time axis. The visual subjects created without destroying the data itself, can be said to be a manifestation of the inherent nature of digital data that has been stripped of its realistic meaning and rendered an arrangement of numerical values.

At the Sapporo International Arts Festival 2017 scheduled to take place this summer, the ARTSAT Project that promotes the use space satellites in relation to cultural arts and in which Hirakawa serves as artistic director, will collaborate with the SIAF Lab based in Sapporo City Museum of Art to present a new work at the Moerenuma Park entitled, “Sculpture to be Seen from Space, Improvisation to be Heard from Space.”

Norimichi Hirakawa was born in 1982. His works, centralizing in computer programmed audiovisual installations, have been presented at national and international art exhibitions as well as the Media Arts Festivals. He is a recipient of numerous awards including the Award of Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica in 2008. Hirakawa has been involved in a wide range of activities, working with individuals such as Ryoji Ikeda, Yoshihide Otomo, and Seiko Mikami, and has started live performances as Typingmonkeys..