Mika Tajima

Pranayama D

2017

Pranayama D

Mika Tajima’s Pranayama sculptures are built from carved wood and chromed Jacuzzi jets and are presented as artifacts. The title refers to the control of the breath, ‘prana’ in Ayurvedic practice, as the regulation of the vital life force. According to the artist, the sculptures, mediating between two spaces, serve “as membrane, portal or filter between the immediate and the beyond. The gold jet nozzle patterns on the monoliths trace actual meridian acupressure points that control and release the energy flows in the human body.” They imply “an outward escape of a vast and abstract interior into the exhibition space like forced air.” The work is willfully ambiguous, with the potential to be read as both a system of protection or a system of control.

Japanese-American artist Mika Tajima creates sculptures, paintings, videos, and installations with a focus on techniques and technologies of control. She studies architectural systems, ergonomic designs and psychographic data and the impact they have on the human body and relationships of power and submission. She investigates the way in which such design of spaces and environments impact upon the ways we comport ourselves both physically and in thought and desire. This can also pertain to information and digital spaces and our relationships to our virtual selves.

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Mika Tajima Pranayama D

Mika Tajima

Pranayama D