Stack Until It Falls Down
By Aki Onda
August 23–30, 2020
Streaming every evening at PICA.stream starting at 6:30PM PDT
Stack Until It Falls Down was composed by Aki Onda in May 2020 during the lockdown of the COVID-19 crisis. The Fluxus-type score instructs a simple gesture and its repetition. The action of stacking, reflected in the video, suggests activity in our lives or maybe life itself. It’s a recurring cycle that culminates in a potentially unfortunate fate. Stack Until It Falls Down was shot at Hurricane Point – a little known place along the Brooklyn shore of the East River. As one of a few places along the river where two currents meet, Hurricane Point developed as a small island made out of the drifted debris from Hurricane Sandy. This location communicates with the harsh reality of life, and Onda’s simple gesture becomes a metaphor or poetic response to the unprecedented times. The video was made with Brooklyn-based artist and filmmaker Moko Fukuyama and sound designer Daniel Neumann.
Aki Onda
Stack Until It Falls Down
2020
Composed and performed by Aki Onda
Video by Moko Fukuyama
Sound design by Daniel Neumann
Commissioned by Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA)
Artist Bio
Aki Onda was born in Japan and resides in New York. He is particularly known for his “Cassette Memories” — works compiled from a “sound diary” of field-recordings collected by using portable cassette recorder over the span of the last three decades. He creates compositions, performances, and visual artworks from those sound memories. Onda presented his work at The Kitchen, MoMA, New Museum, Pioneer Works, ICA Philadelphia, REDCAT, Time-Based Art Festival, Novas Frequências, documenta 14, Louvre Museum, Pompidou Center, Palais de Tokyo, Fondation Cartier, Présences électronique, Argos, Bozar, ICA London, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Counterflow Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, La Casa Encendida, Caixa Forum, Nam June Paik Art Center, Sound Live Tokyo, and many others. Onda often works in interdisciplinary fields and collaborates with filmmakers, visual artists, musicians, and choreographers. For the last fifteen years, he has worked with artists such as Ken Jacobs, Michael Snow, Paul Clipson, Raha Raissnia, Annea Lockwood, Loren Conners, Alan Licht, MV Carbon, Che Chen, Cecilia Lopez, Jac Berrocal, David Toop, Rie Nakajima, Akio Suzuki, Nao Nishihara, Daisuke Yokota, and Takao Kawaguchi.