Tatsuo Miyajima:

Tatsuo Miyajima Japanese sculptor and installation artist. He finished undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1986 and came to prominence in the late 1980s with installations of digital counters in the form of light-emitting diodes. He made his first counter in 1988 and subsequently retained this form as his basic building block: a large, two-digit red display, it continually counts from 1 to 99, never reaching 100 or registering zero.

Counter Void, 2003
Collection of tv asahi, Tokyo
Directed by Fumihiko Maki
Photo: Kunihiko Katsumata
Courtesy of Shiraishi Contemporary Art Inc

Over the past few years, it has been Miyajima's monumental public art projects around the world that have attracted the most attention. Starting with a public art project for Geneva University, Switzerland in 1997, he has steadily broadened his scope, creating a series of large site-specific works that include Sea of Time '98, for the Art House Project on Naoshima Island, Okayama, Counter Void for the TV Asahi headquarters in Roppongi Hills, Tokyo, Time Garden in Izumi City, Osaka, and Transcend Section for the entrance to the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul, Korea. While retaining his focus on counters to convey his messages, he utilizes neon lights, liquid crystal and even performance art in addition to LEDs.