This work is to be viewed from a position close to the entrance.

This work begins when the shoal of fish from The Way of the Sea enters the Small Universe in the Cave in the middle of the hallway. The work ends when the fish leave the space and disappear.

If you stand at the position close to the entrance, the boundary between the wall and the floor disappears, making the lines drawn by the trails of the shoal appear three-dimensional. Eventually your body becomes immersed in the world of the artwork, and the boundary between the artwork world and the viewer dissolves as well.

The shoal of fish rendered in light moves freely through the space, leaving trails of light. They sense people’s presence and try to avoid colliding with them. People who enter this space are assigned a certain color, and when a fish passes by a person, it takes on the same color.

This work is part of a series called The Way of Birds. “The way of the bird” is a Zen expression that refers to how the flight of a bird is free, as opposed to the fixed roads in the human world. The way of the bird is free, unfettered, and leaves no trace. Here, the birds are replaced with fish.

The movement of thousands of fish is beautiful and mysterious, appearing like a single giant life form. The shoal has neither a leader nor mutual consensus, but it is said that the fish move on the simple basis of; if my neighbor moves, then I move too. However, the biological mechanism that causes hundreds of fish to move at the same time remains a mystery. It seems there is a universal principle that humans have yet to understand. Likewise, the arrangement of color of the shoal is not predetermined. Influenced by people, the fish move, based on a primitive rule unknown to humankind, which in turn creates a complex and beautiful coloration in the space.

The artwork is not a pre-recorded image that is played back: it is created by a computer program that continuously renders the work in real time. The installation is in constant change,  previous visual states will never be replicated, and will never reoccur. The picture at this moment can never be seen again.