I'm just back from hot and dry Las Vegas, where the world's high rollers, faced with lavish entertainment options such as performance-art ensemble Blue Man Group and magicians Siegfried & Roy, have made the Cirque du Soleil's "O" the hottest ticket in town. The central attraction of "O" is not its troupe of body-painted dancers or a disappearing white tiger, but -- as its title derived from the French word eau suggests -- plain old water.
I was reminded of the Nevada city this week while visiting Tokyo Opera City Gallery's recently opened exhibition, "New Ocean." Not only because this sound- and video-based installation by Doug Aitken focuses on water, but also because it is the most Vegas-like show -- in scale and style -- of anything I have ever seen at a Tokyo art space.
A former music-video director (Prodigy, Barenaked Ladies), Aitken made waves when he won the International Prize at the 1999 Venice Biennale with a video installation titled "Electric Earth." The multiscreen piece features frenetic breakdancer Ali "Giggi" Johnson and links the nervous impulses that drive the human body with the electricity that powers society's new information networks.