“Collection Survey -Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples”, 2019. Installation view. Photo and Video by Yoshisato Komaki, courtesy of Sapporo Tenjinyama Art Studio.

 

This work consists of moving images constructed with videographs of the museum collection, the computer-controlled surveillance cameras in the exhibition room and the museum collection itself. Here, Minami tries to depict the transformation of visual elements in the Northern cultural region by means of “gradations”. For example, by combining close-up images from the Ainu’s clothing pattern and Inuit sculpture in a video compilation, it results in a chain reaction of unexpected images drawn out of the museum collection and these images start to transcend the normal range of space and time. In addition, contrasting different presences in the museum; like between the robot camera representing a surveillance technology and ethnic materials from the collection – a combination which may seem odd but is in fact very common in the museum, unites the whole situation which in turn becomes the artwork itself.