The Who

Makoto Tojiki is a light artist based out of Chiba, the capital city of the Chiba Prefecture of Japan. Graduating Kindai University in 1998 as an industrial design student, he worked in the same field unti 2003 while keeping art as a hobby. Come 2003, he launched his full-time artistic career with small art pieces meant to be produced on a larger scale. He quickly found this to not be so fulfilling and branched out into larger and more eccentric art pieces focused on light.

The What

man in the rain

A piece about sillhouettes and the illusion of movement. LEDs are positioned on a board and showered in mist, with the water vapor reflecting the LEDs in interesting ways that give the apperance of movement.

The Man with No Shadow

A piece about perception and depth. LEDs are hung from a grid of strings and lit up to form the outline of a human body, and the lack of any shadows makes it difficult for the viewer to interpret the depth of the piece. It will appear somewhat flat when viewed from any angle, both close up and far away.

existence

A piece about our perception of each other and what we see. Lights are strung up similarly to The Man with No Shadow, but instead of forming an entire body they only show the portions of the body that would be visible from between the two. It is about the brief and incomplete picture we get of one another from a passing glance.

Solidarity and Collaboration

A piece from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic talking about togetherness and cooperation. Made of steel grids that reflect light in interesting ways when spotlights are aimed at it, it was a symbol of the collaboration of the olympics, happening in Tokyo at the time, and the importance of cooperation during a global pandemic.

The Why

Makoto Tojiki found himself fascinated with the relationship between light and shadow; how someone’s perspective and perception can change without them changing anything about themselves. He wanted to explore the point at which someone’s view of a still object would change without their action. He experimented with pieces like existence and man in the rain to demonstrate that idea, with both installations offering an interesting perspective on depth and light while exploring human topics like interpersonal relationships and judgements.