Clad in a dress made entirely from washi and standing on the iconic Nelson Stair inside London’s Somerset House, Midori Komachi appears to float among clouds also made from the traditional Japanese paper.
At the bottom of the stairs, the 36-year-old begins to play her violin, pauses for a recording of cello and shakuhachi flute to rise, then plunges into motion, plucking the strings with her whole body. The rustle of washi against skin joins the ensemble, culminating in an exhilarating, John Cage-like experimental score reverberating through the five-story rotunda.
“Sound is lighter than air,” writes Komachi, quoting acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, in the exhibition pamphlet. Yet her plucking carries weight, like the sekimori ishi (boundary stones) that anchor the washi clouds, imported by Sekisui House Kuma Lab Codirector Toshiki Hirano, who also designed Komachi’s washi dress.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.