QUARK

Eiji Sumi is an artist who creates elaborate structures and new spatial experiences with light as his central medium. In QUARK the artist employs particles that appear like reflective dust, and are typically used in motion graphics. The installation consists of a site-specific structure in which these particles urgently swirl and most immediately compel a sense of wonder and fascination. They further compel an array of associations related to infinitude and the cosmos. However, the artist is also concerned to probe relationships between art and science and the installation is technically accomplished, resulting from a variety of experiments to achieve the tornado-like movement of the reflective powder and effectively manipulate the environment of H Project Space.

The title of this installation references subatomic particles which are the smallest known units of matter. The basis of all in the world, they never occur alone and interact by means of force. The name quark was taken by a physicist from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake where a pun on the name of the character King Mark provided inspiration. A further literary influence can be noted in the fact that the six types of known quarks are designated as ‘flavors’ and ‘colours’ and one of their titles is Charm. These auras of scientific and literary interest shape the experience of QUARK.