Art and Spirituality: Mariko Mori

For the thematic area Art and Spirituality I have chosen to research Japanese artist Mariko Mori.

Her work embodies a vision of contemporary spirituality, which fuses high-technology with Japanese religious tradition. It exemplifies the optimistic sense of interconnectedness that the advancement of global communications and technologies has brought about and covers a number of the salient features of the thematic area; her work is at once an exploration of cultural identity, a genuine personal spiritual quest, and an attempt to affect her audience into altered states of consciousness.

In Wave UFO 1999-2002, viewers enter an alien vessel 3 at a time and are hooked up to brainwave monitoring electrodes which generate a light-show from their biofeedback. This is the psychic world of cyberspace and offers its audience an immersive and visually ethereal spectacle, inviting them to momentarily transcend the mundane in much the same way traditional temples and churches do.



Wave UFO 1999-2002, fiberglass, resin, 34 feet long x 17 feet wide x 14 feet.


"Miko no Inori" or the Shaman-Girl’s Prayer 1996, is another of Mori's periodic self-transformations. Shape-shifting into a silver-eyed, silver-haired visionary, Mori dances with a crystal ball to a haunting Japanese song. In Mori's fantasy it is the cyborg which has access to the world of spirit and the unknown, her pearlescent machinic breast plates implying transcendence of the flesh through the purity of the machine.



Miko no Inori (The Shaman-Girl’s Prayer) 1996, video still.

Check out the video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwl6G9L6bk8


Mori’s "Enlightenment Capsule" equips the imagined meditator with everything necessary on their quest for enlightenment, including a system of natural light filtration which removes ultraviolet and infrared radiation. No surprises if this reads like a sales line, the paradoxical nature of this material path to the immaterial, embedded in plexiglass-kitsch, is absolutely apparent. In fact it is a hallmark of Mori’s new religious iconography which forces us to reassess our perceptions of spirituality in light of the increasing technological augmentation of reality in contemporary society.




“Enlightenment Capsule” 1998, optic fibre cables, glass, aprox 150 by 100 cm.


Mori renews our visions of the sacred, questioning the progress of spirituality within our contemporary context right at its interface with technology. Is it technological advancement which will allow us to transcend the flesh and connect with higher consciousness?

Bibliography

Baas, J. and Jacob, M.J. (eds.) "Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art" University of California Press, Berkeley, 2004.

Cotter,H. "Drawing on a Rich Lode of Shinto-Buddhist Culture; In Brooklyn, a mix of adolescent fantasy, fashion and narcissicism." New York Times, Apr 16, 1999. p. E33 [accessed online: http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/]

Eliel, C.S., "Interpreting Tradition: Mariko Mori’s Nirvana" in Moriko Mori, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Distributed Art Publishers Inc., New York, 1999, p.27-31.

Molon, D., Countdown to Ectasy in Moriko Mori Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Distributed Art Publishers Inc., New York, 1999, p.1-16.

http://www.galerieperrotin.com/artiste-Mariko_Mori-6.html [accessed: 20/08/10]