Skip to main content
Image Not Available
for Dwelling
Dwelling
Artist
Hiraki Sawa
(Japanese, born 1977)
Date2003
MediumVideo
DimensionsDuration: 8 minutes, 20 seconds
Credit LineCollection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Gift of the Director's Council, 2003
Object number2003.5.1
Status
Not on viewCopyright© Hiraki Sawa / Courtesy of James Cohan Gallery, New York/Shanghai
Category
Label TextThe video Dwelling, 2003, by Hiraki Sawa, begins with several shots of a small apartment containing only bare necessities, with the exception of tiny toy planes lying on every surface. Without warning, one of the planes slides along the carpet and lifts sharply into the air, followed by another and another, until the entire apartment is crisscrossed with miniature Boeings on solemn flight paths. They soar past light switches, take off from the bed, and fly around the bathroom. The effect is both humbling and comical, making this bare-bones efficiency apartment seem like a vast stratosphere. Above all, Dwelling is intriguing because of its seemingly effortless strangeness.