“Glass” is a video piece containing a recording of a performance by SAKAMOTO Ryuichi and alva noto (Carsten NICOLAI) in The Glass House, which is a masterful symbol of 20th-century modernist architecture created by American architect Phillip JOHNSON (1906–2005). The performance was carried out in 2016 to mark the opening of KUSAMA Yayoi’s installation “Dots Obsession - Alive, Seeking For Eternal Hope,” held to mark the 110th anniversary of JOHNSON’s birth and the 10th anniversary of the opening of The Glass House site to the public.

SAKAMOTO and NICOLAI affixed contact microphones to surfaces of the structure, which is surrounded by nature and fitted with glass panels on all sides, and used mallets to stroke and otherwise contact the glass surfaces, thus utilizing The Glass House itself as a musical instrument to generate acoustic sounds. By doing this while also using electronic musical instruments such as synthesizers and laptop-computer-based software, as well as musical instruments including crystal singing bowls, the pair carried out an improvised performance.

Directed by Derrick BELCHAM

TOTAL TIME: 26:50