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[Herald Design Forum 2023] A.A.Murakami discusses sustainability in art

By Yoon Min-sik

Published : Sept. 19, 2023 - 17:02

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Azusa Murakami (left) and Alexander Grove of A.A.Murakami during their lecture at the Herald Design Forum 2023 at the Shilla Seoul on Tuesday. (Im Se-jun) Azusa Murakami (left) and Alexander Grove of A.A.Murakami during their lecture at the Herald Design Forum 2023 at the Shilla Seoul on Tuesday. (Im Se-jun)

Coming from the two very different worlds of Tokyo and London, the artist duo of Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves have explored the possibility of sustainable material and low energy use through their work.

At the Herald Design Forum 2023 at the Shilla Seoul on Tuesday, the duo called A.A.Murakami spoke on the topic of "Adventure Design and Ephemeral Tech," sharing their insight on thinking imaginatively on the issue of sustainability and making it desirable through art.

“We were really interested in the idea of this synthetic material and combining with the modern arts," said Murakami. She explained how exploring the possibilities for sustainable materials took them from fishing for plastic out of fishermen's nets to combing the world's largest human hair market in China, to the Amazon rainforest in Brazil looking for wild rubber.

The relationship between humans and nature goes all the way back to the beginning, Groves noted, and their work depicts this relationship with modern technology.

Their 2013 work “Can City” is a collection of aluminum objects made from waste, and “Sea Chair,” created in 2012, is made with plastic recovered from the ocean.

Their work in recent years has also focused on merging science, technology and art, such as in "New Spring," which combines ephemeral matter with cutting-edge robotics and digital technologies.

The duo's installation work called "Under a Flowing Field," which comprises 60 tubes of krypton in a state of plasma, is being exhibited at Hyundai Motor Studio in Busan until Oct. 1.

A.A.Murakami's work have also been included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Vitra Design Museum in Germany and M+ in Hong Kong.