Spacy, 1981, 16mm film transferred to digital video, tinted B&W, sound, 10 minutes, 24 seconds. Courtesy of the artist.
Takashi Ito is one of Japan’s best-known experimental filmmakers. Spacy (1981) explores the nature of illusionistic space and time through an analytical dissection of cinematic continuity with some unexpected twists. The film is composed entirely of still photographs shot with a traditional rangefinder camera—a laborious technique that would become one of the hallmarks of Ito’s artistic practice. Each frame of perceivable movement in Spacy required Ito to take individual photographs in series along a pre-calculated trajectory. Set in what appears to be a school gymnasium, Spacy is defined by a rhythmically looping series of gliding movements in which the camera repeatedly rushes through empty space towards a photograph of the same gymnasium, positioned on a stand at various points in the room. As the looping camera movements intensify, the spectator begins to feel that they are trapped within an endlessly recursive simulated space. The pseudo-modernist architecture of the school gymnasium becomes permeated with a palpable sense of frustration, dread, and rage.
