Tam Ochiai | Stuart Munro

ashtray sculpture (Guitar List) / (pineapple island) 2017

“The Tapetum Lucidum (“bright tapestry” in Latin) of the title refers to a tissue layer found in the eyes of many nocturnal animals. It is located bahind the retina, functions to capture and reflect minuscule amounts of light in the dark, and is understood as causing the phenomenon of cats” eyes glowing in the dark. The tapetum, not present in the human eye, is a fitting analogy for Ochiai’s nimble and humorous works, which in effect absorb luminosity from things of which we are usually not strongly aware and emit reflected light for an instant. While the works are seemingly fragmentary, the fragments act to constantly disrupt the overall picture, and cannot be reduced to a single narrative. Ochiai has said that the eye, which continuously reflects light in the dark, is the midway point between seer and seen.” If the world of this exhibition represents the interior of the eye, it may also symbolize an eternal midway point at which the seer and the seen freely intersect.”