“Floating World” Immersive Environments at the MFAH Fuses the Forces of Technology and Nature

Opening May 4, the project by the acclaimed Tokyo- and London-based A.A.Murakami is the duo’s first solo presentation in a U.S. museum and their largest to date anywhere

A series of four sensory landscapes has unfolded across the galleries of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, immersing visitors in environments of light, fog, plasma and sound.

Opening May 4 and running through September 21, Floating World: A.A.Murakami, a project by the acclaimed Tokyo- and London-based artist duo A.A.Murakami, melds science, art and nature to create unique environments.

“This is the first exhibition in a U. S. museum of the work of these remarkable artists,” noted Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams chair of the MFAH. “The term that A.A.Murakami has used to characterize their work — “Ephemeral Tech” — aptly captures the uncanny nature of these mesmerizing environments, which rely on the latest innovations in artifice and science to evoke the timeless, fleeting moments of nature’s forces.”

Said Bradley Bailey, Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao curator of Asian art at the MFAH, “These ethereal installations of light and vapor not only push the boundaries of art and technology; they brilliantly evoke a touchstone of Japanese cultural history. With these four environments A.A.Murakami transport us to the iconic, Edo-era “Floating World,” or ukiyo, which allowed people to abandon the concerns and troubles of everyday life and enter a realm of rich sensory experience.”

Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves, the artists behind A.A.Murakami, have said, “The inspiration for the Floating World installation comes from the tradition of auspicious clouds in Asian art, which hold a dynamic sense of movement—coiling and uncoiling in a perpetual state of formation and dissolution, symbolic of the constant flux of existence, embodying the endless process of unfurling that reflects the transient nature of life and the bridge between the earthly world and the heavenly realm.”

In their Houston presentation, the duo brings together four distinct immersive spaces. Custom-designed for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the exhibition is their largest to date.

Entering the galleries, visitors will experience Cell (2020), a series of futuristic sculptures made of polished steel and foamed aluminum, an industrial material used in aerospace and construction. A.A.Murakami have instead created porous, cragged forms that reference the East Asian tradition of Scholar’s Rocks and Zen Rock gardens, while also evoking the origins of human life on the ocean floor.

In the second installation, Neon Sun (2020), employs a series of custom-made glass tubes, each filled with invisible noble gases. Using wireless technology, an electromagnetic field is generated within each vacuum-sealed tube, resulting in a beautiful, otherworldly glow that oscillates between soft green-blues and vivid orange/reds.

Next is Beyond the Horizon (2024), an immersive that was commissioned by M+ in Hong Kong and most recently on display there. Here, clouds give rise to immense, amorphous bubbles that float gracefully through the air, their surfaces catching the light until bursting A.A.Murakami to return to soft, ephemeral clouds. The bubbles emerge in unpredictable sequences, creating an ever-changing choreography of movement.

From this space visitors will pass into an installation titled Passage (2023). Wisps of fog rings will be launched into the gallery from 18 fog cannons mounted on a large scaffold tower, creating a fully immersive environment.

Visitors will conclude their journey with Under a Flowing Field (2023), an installation that features a network of glass tubes filled with krypton gas, which creates a visually striking field of lightninglike white lines that appear to flow through a void of color-tinted space.

Plan Your Visit

• This exhibition is located on Level 1 of the Beck Building.
• Some spaces feature lighting and fog that may cause discomfort for individuals who are sensitive to light and vapor.
• Children are welcome to enjoy this exhibition under close supervision of an adult.

MORE INFORMATION

Visit https://www.mfah.org/exhibitions/floating-world-aamurakami.

Photos: V. Sweeten