M Gallery, CICA Museum
July 9 – 27, 2025
2025.7.9 – 27
Co-Creation Project
Personhood is an interactive sculpture inspired by Timothy Morton’s concept of the Mesh, which envisages the world as a web of relationships among beings. The work explores the intersubjective process through which humans recognise nonhuman entities as persons. At its centre stands a copper-woven sculpture called the “Shell-Person,” containing an internal light bulb and connected to a metal device at the end of a wire. When a viewer touches the surface of this device, sound and light respond in harmony, as if celebrating contact with another being—the steady heartbeat gradually transforming into a lively, dynamic rhythm. Yet, this caterpillar-like figure is hollow and lacks its own will; it functions as an empty vessel. A microphone beneath the device captures the viewer’s touch, converting vibrations into data that trigger the responsive sound and light. In essence, the Shell-Person becomes the very person who touches it, inviting reflection on the boundaries between self and other, and between objects and persons.
Ayane Tominaga is an artist based between London, Miyazaki, and Tokyo. They graduated with a BA in Fine Art and History of Art from Goldsmiths, University of London. Their practice sits at the intersection of collage, drawing, sculpture and sound, creating immersive installations that invite viewers into an imaginative realm shaped by transience and interconnection. Drawing inspiration from the concept of Mesh and the philosophical notion of mujo (the transience of things) rooted in their cultural background, their work embodies the tension between the familiar and the unknown, reflecting the impermanent and relational nature of existence.
