Oni-bi (fen fire) (2013/2018)

Overview

The title of this work by Yuko Mohri, Oni-bi (fen fire) (2013/2018), refers to the mysterious fires in Japan and other parts of Asia that are regarded as earthly manifestations of human and animal spirits.

The installation is composed of a self-made glockenspiel that was inspired by a similar instrument created by American pipe organist Victor Clark Searle, who immigrated to Japan after the end of World War II. A faint electric current is passed through a screen, and when a curtain blows in the wind and touches the screen, the electric current passes through the curtain, producing small sparks. Depending on where the curtain touches the screen, different notes from the glockenspiel’s keyboard are played, creating gamelan-like reverberations that combine to produce a kind of otherworldly music.