ONE ON ONE

Song-Ming Ang
on Yamashita andKobayashi
calculated, but it has an unpretentious qualitythat I admire.
The work in which they rolled the dice is called

Miracle (2004). It's not a miracle, but a feat ofhuman endeavor. In the video, you do not just see
the results of the astonishingly aligned dice but
also hear the couple's surprised exclamations.
The spontaneous yelps are curiously stirring,
just as the results are life affirming. It makes me
think that I can achieve anything as long as I tryvery hard.
I also very much like their work 1,000 Waves(2007). Here, the couple shot a video of the seaand superimposed a number from 1 up to 1,000
onto every wave they counted. The process is ofcourse arbitrary to a certain extent-it's difficult
to determine when exactly one wave ends andanother begins, but that's why I like it. Ourworld often feels chaotic, but in Yamashita andKobayashi's universe I see discipline and devotion
trump everything else.
The artists make works from simple, diligent
repetition, but their talent really lies in dreaming

There is a magical pull in theconsciously modest art of Mai
Yamashita and Naoto I<obayashi.

up the impossible. In When I Wish Upon a Star

(2004-06), they shot a video of a shooting star andslowed the footage down from a split second to two
minutes, long enough for Yamashita to recite all
her wishes over the video.
"I wish to be a great artist. I wish not to worry
about money. I wish never to become sick again.

MAl YAMASHITA andNAOTO KOBAYASHI

I believe it's because their works are neverI wish to have no regrets after death. I wish toYhen I Wish Upon a Star

prescriptive or didactic, but are purposeful inbe prettier after I'm born again. I wish to repay

2004-{)6

their lightness.

ideo installation, 2 min.
Cou nesy Takuro Someya ContemporaryArt, Tokyo.

my debt to the Japan Scholarship Foundation.

My first encounter with their work was in late

I wish I could be closer to my parents. I wish

2010, when I received a booklet about the current

I could have witty conversations. I wish toresidents of the Kiinstlerhaus Bethanien, where I

produce masterpieces."

was going to be an artist-in-residence the following

The list is much longer, but every line reflectsyear. I thumbed through the pages, and one image

so accurately our basic desires and insecurities.

captured my attention. It was a video still of a

When I Wish Upon a Star is universal in its

couple jogging on a grass lawn, following a track

concerns, and moving in its nakedness. I don'tthat bore the shape of an infinity sign. Evidently,

know the couple personally, but when I finallythey had been jogging until they wore out thearrived at the Kiinstlerhaus Bethanien, I wasgrass, leaving the trail in their wake.
The work, Infinity (2006), felt refreshing in its

informed by a fellow resident that the previous
inhabitants of my studio were Yamashita andsimplicity and subtle humor. But it wasn't just

Kobayashi. Given that there were 25 studios,a joke. Behind the seemingly pointless gesture

I must say that was quite a miracle.

of running in circles was a palpable sense of laborand a carefully delineated premise. I wondered,
who are these people?
As artists, Yamashita and Kobayashi deal withmundane subjects in an often whimsical way.
They've fed a canvas to a pride of lions, they'velicked a giant candy ball until it became lollipop­
sized, and they've rolled five dice for two months
until all of their faces showed the same number.
I like how silly they are. Their work may be

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