Mika Tajima

Negative Entropy; Air Shower & Sound Bath

In 2024, Mika Tajima added two new 3.5-by-5-metre tapestries to her Negative entropy series. The first three tapestries, which Tajima developed in the TextielLab in 2021, are acoustic portraits that convert audio recordings into textiles. All these recordings were of high-tech data centres, high-end machines and advanced medical procedures. For example, the 2021 tapestries depicted electrical pulses that are used to treat people with Parkinson’s disease.

One of the new tapestries also originates in the world of science and high tech. Air shower depicts a sound recording of an air shower, a system of air jets that prevents contaminants from entering a cleanroom. The recording was made at a major Japanese manufacturer of storage devices. However, for Sound bath, Tajima wanted a different sound from a completely different arena. It is based on a recording of a relaxation and meditation session in which sound and music are used to create a calming environment. Sound bath was featured in Tajima’s solo exhibition ‘Super natural’ at the Hill Art Foundation in New York.

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Photos by Charles Benton