Mariko Mori: Drawings

ALBION is pleased to announce an exhibit of never before seen work by Mariko Mori. Mori will show thirteen drawings depicting the study for the computer generated animation of her monumental sculpture Wave UFO.

Delicate and iridescent, Mori’s intricately beautiful works on paper offer a new perspective on the immense, shimmering, teardrop-shape Wave UFO. Wave UFO was originally unveiled at Austria’s Kunsthaus Bregenz before occupying the atrium at 590 Madison Avenue courtesy of New York’s nonprofit Public Art Fund, as well as at the 51st Venice Biennale, Groninger Museum, Holland and AROS, Denmark. The dynamic space-themed exhibit, classified as “part space capsule, part meditation chamber,” Wave UFO was conceived, as a large-scale sculpture and bio-amorphous architectural work, creating an interactive experience fusing real-time computer graphics, brainwave technology, sound and intriguing structural engineering. Blending influences of spirituality and pop culture, Wave UFO exemplifies Mori’s production of epic installations – recently classified by Art Forum as “flawless digital fantasies of techno femininity” - and exploration of modern day concerns. “Loss of personal interconnection, anxiety about the role played by technology in modern life and the fear that humanity is merging with its machines,” hypothesized Art in America upon its display.

Mariko Mori Drawings recaptures the gleaming fiberglass panel pod Wave UFO – where inside three visitors engage in a seven-minute interactive light show. Reclining and relaxing they connect to headsets equipped with electrodes, which pick up on their brainwaves. A computer then translates the brainwaves into patterns of biomorphic forms. The altering patterns reappear on the capsule’s domed screen and are then replaced by Mori’s sparkling computer generated animations of organic shapes. “You leave everyday life behind - people enter as individuals but become connected to one another by biofeedback technology,” explained Mori.

About Mariko Mori Born in Tokyo in 1967, Mariko Mori attended London’s Chelsea College of Art upon graduating from Tokyo’s prestigious Bunka Fashion College. In 1992 she enrolled at New York’s Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program. Emerging as one of the “undisputed stars” of the 1997 Venice Biennale, four major 1998 solo shows followed on: at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, the Serpentine Gallery, London and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Mori was the only woman artist featured in 2000’s “Apocalypse” at the Royal Academy in London, where she exhibited Dream Temple, originally commissioned and displayed by the Prada Foundation in 1999.

Mariko Mori
Drawings