Meiro Koizumi

Dislocation and the fetishisation of relationships underline the work of Meiro Koizumi, and especially so in My Voice Would Reach You (2010). In a video documenting a performance of sorts, a male protagonist made an idealised telephone call that falls on deaf ears. While the man poured out his thoughts and emotions to his mother, against the backdrop of a busy Tokyo street, a call centre employee was revealed to be desperately trying to make sense of what she was hearing on the other end – a romantic request to share a spa holiday in the country together, a particular gesture in Japanese culture to signify wealth. As the video progressed, the protagonist continued to make heartfelt ‘prank calls’ in an attempt to communicate his feelings to these surrogates, reaching out to his mother too late.

Reflecting on both the estrangement of life in the city and the folly of modern familial relationships, Koizumi contrasts humour with heartfelt emotion which in turn created an absurd scenario that was compounded by the lead actor’s own experience of losing his mother.

In his work, he uses video in a way that documents performances, conversations and constructed scenarios to explore the psychology of urban relationships and modern living.

My Voice Would Reach You (single channel version), 2009
HD video installation, 16mins 45 secs
Exhibited at FACT

SUPPORTED BY

Commissioned by Mori Art Museum