Mariko Mori’s 1996 video, Miko no Inori is our pick for today’s #FilmFridays. The film will be live for 24 hours from 9am Friday, April 17 until 9am Saturday, April 18 EST. Link in bio.
Join us on social media and tag @SeanKellyNY to share a pic of your at-home screening. The person who submits the best picture of them watching the film will receive a signed copy of a Mariko Mori catalogue.
Miko No Inori, which translates as Prayer of the Priestess, is set in Kansai international airport, which was considered quite sensational at the time for its futuristic architecture. Mori appears as an extra-terrestrial and a shaman dressed in a white, iridescent costume that complements her reflective ice blue eyes. She cradles and caresses a crystal sphere while she is singing softly in Japanese which translate to “the words are melting and becoming one”.
This film, created early in Mariko Mori’s career, includes many of the universal themes she continues to address in her work today. Turning to fashion, pop culture, and science fiction as aesthetic templates, Mori created a high-gloss digital dreamscape which refers to Buddhist iconography while presenting an optimistic vision of a technological future. Melding Eastern and Western forms and mixing transcendental themes with open appeals to visual pleasure, the artist proposes a cultural condition in which aesthetics, spirituality, and technology intermingle.
#MarikoMori, Miko No Inori, 1996, Video (VHS), transferred to digital, color, sound; 29:23 min. loop @marikomori #SeanKellyNY #DigitalProgramming #MikoNoInori #NYCGalleriesLive