Akio Suzuki

Southfirst is very proud to present Pa Chin Ko an exhibition of new works by 75-year-old Japanese conceptual sound artist Akio Suzuki. The centerpiece of Pa Chin Ko is a site-specific installation composed by the artist to create an overflowing interactive room-sized pachinko machine. The exhibition will also feature four interactive sculptural wall works; each piece is made up of a unique pattern of nails on a plywood surface, which enables different sounds depending on where small metal balls are dropped. The exhibition is curated by sound artist and performer Aki Onda. Suzuki will present performances of the pieces in the installation as well as a historical experimental sound object, ANALAPOS (1970), at the opening reception.

“Suzuki grew up near Nagoya, Japan, where pachinko, a traditional Japanese arcade game, was created. Stumbling into a pachinko parlor one afternoon as an adult, Suzuki encountered strange parallels to his practice as a musician. The idea of dropping a series of metal balls into a randomized field of materials and following their chaotic decent is a playful return to a legendary piece Suzuki created in 1963. In this work Suzuki threw a bucket of junk down a flight of stairs at the Nagoya train station. The goal was to observe and listen to the rhythm of the stairs,” writes Justin Luke on Southfirst’s pa chin ko installation.

A series of four historical performances by Suzuki entitled Conceptual Soundwork: 1978-1986, will be presented at Issue Project Room on Friday, March 18, 2016. This exhibition is organized by Maika Pollack in collaboration with Audio Visual Arts. The organizers would like to thank the Pola Art Foundation for its support of this exhibition.

Japanese sound artist Akio Suzuki (b. 1941) lives and works in Ky_tango, Japan. Since the mid-1970s, Suzuki has been active as an improvisational musician, collaborating with artists including Derek Bailey, Takehisa Kosugi, Steve Lacy, George Lewis, Jim O’Rourke, and David Toop. Past exhibition venues include Yokosuka Museum of Art in Yokosuka, Japan (2013), Audio Visual Arts, NY (2012), Noiseless: Akio Suzuki + Rolf Julius at The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (2007), Soundsphere at the British Museum, London (2003), and Klanggelerie at SFB in Berlin, Germany (2002) among others.