Multi-talented Japanese artist Ryuichi Sakamoto exhibits in Beijing

Originally commissioned in 2007 by the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, the work is originally formed by nine customized water tanks, but M Woods brings an expanded version consisting of 12 tanks. Floating in the air, each tank is presented as a mixture of sound, artificial smoke and video footage, and images from the opera are projected onto the gallery floor following a taxonomical system.

Async, the first solo album that Sakamoto released in the spring of 2017, is presented in the exhibition, highlighting the difference between "listening" to an album and "experiencing" it in space, as Sakamoto calls "installation music".

The exhibition wishes to provide a different way to understand the album, and more importantly, the chance to physically "enter" the music through a space designed by Sakamoto and collaborators.

The exhibition also includes outdoor installations that have been modified especially for the gallery, Sensing Streams (2014/2021). It's originally made in 2014 with Daito Manabe, a Japanese artist. This new version has been converted from its original format and integrated into the existing architecture of the gallery's rooftop. Also, Sakamoto's cinematic scores, including The Last Emperor plus a special set of photographic images by artist Basil Pao taken during the making of the film, and Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence.

"The exhibition reflects the world environment, natural disasters, human behavior. Sakamoto is so amazing, he said that music represents. I will always admire him, from the past to the future," comments Wang Jiayi, a 27-year-old independent musician.

"It is a great pleasure to be invited to exhibit almost all of my sound installations in China for the first time. Through my work, I hope people in China can enjoy the boundary between sound and noise, between sound and silence, and the interstices of sound and image," says Sakamoto.

The exhibition runs until Aug 8.