shinkai, is a site-specific installation by artist and architect Yumi Kori, curated by Tania Duvergne. Conceived in response to the distinct specificities of the Ise gallery, the installation transforms existing properties and characteristics to reveal an entirely new spatial experience. A hint at what awaits the viewer is revealed in the exhibition’s title, shinkai- Japanese for “deep ocean” and the name of the world’s deepest diving manned submersible vessel.

Central to Yumi Kori’s artistic and architectural practice is the transformative power of light. In subtle yet poignant ways, she draws upon its unique qualities to create alternative spaces and thoroughly engaging experiences. Incorporating only limited additional elements, Kori guides her viewers to a place where the invisible becomes visible and time and space collapse.

With shinkai, Kori confronts the Ise gallery’s particular sense of finitude due mainly to its windowless, basement location. Her intervention evokes a dissolution of physical limitations, giving way to suggestions of what lies beyond the gallery walls. Viewers are presented with a mutli-sensory experience that disrupts assumed perceptions, offering in its place an alternate, infinite reality.

About the curator: Tania Duvergne is an independent curator and art consultant based in New York and the tri-state area. She has curated exhibitions and produced publications for art organizations in New York, San Diego, and Washington, DC. She has likewise worked extensively in the public realm on projects including inSITE97, inSITE2000, New York’s MTA Arts for Transit, and the Peekskill Project 2006.

Sound by Bernhard Gal