[Title] Gift of the Ganges
[Artist] Yasuhiro Suzuki
[Date] May 22 – July 15, 2008
The Ganges River is shown flowing with infinite ease and tranquility, while bursting through the water surface and rising into the air are various different Hermès products. Plunging down from the sky overhead, meanwhile, is a scarf that remains suspended in midair. Passersby are thus seen encountering the “Gift of the Ganges” as it gushes up from beneath the river surface. Although the instant of their astonishment is frozen forever in time, the river continues to move along as it always has.
The Ganges is viewed as a sacred body of water. Those who bathe in these river waters believe they will wash away the suffering and worldly sins of this life, immaculately cleansing their souls. The Ganges swallows up all things in its path as it flows on, gathering in the thoughts of people before emptying its contents into the great ocean. Some of these waters evaporate into the air and form clouds, eventually returning to the earth as rain and once again finding their way into the Ganges. In this way, the belief in the transmigration of souls, as seen in the Hindu faith, overlaps with the natural phenomenon of the circulation of water.
The window on the right side portrays the vista of people witnessing the eruption of the wide range of Hermès creations from breaks in the surface of the Ganges’ waters, which then ascend toward the sky. The scene can be said to depict the instant that the conviction and energy that artisans have channeled into products, which just a split second before remained poised beneath the surface, soar into view. The window on the left shows a vividly colored scarf drifting down from the heavens above, conjuring up images of the eventual return of water, in the form of rainfall, to the Ganges.
With the river pictured as flowing from the right to left side windows, guests entering Maison Hermès can find themselves lulled into the illusion of fording their way across the Ganges as they move into the boutique domain. The small window reenacts the gently swaying water surface, with the synergistic effects of the flight reflecting off the Maison Hermès glass block façade overhead casting a brilliant shimmer onto the products emerging into sight from below the waters.
Yasuhiro Suzuki
Born in Hamamatsu City (Shizuoka Prefecture) in 1979, graduated from the Department of Design of Tokyo University of Art and Design in 2001. His initial breakthrough came with “Globe Jungle Project ~ Neighborhood Globe ~ ” (2001), an installation-format creation focused on a “globe jungle” revolving park playground apparatus. This led to Suzuki’s participation in a steady series of exhibitions and festivals in Japan and overseas. He has been featured as an invited artist, for example, at Ars Electronica Festival ’02 (Austria), DEAF ’03 (Netherlands) and Little 2004 (France). His “Blinking Leaf,” first unveiled at Tokyo’s Aoyama Spiral Garden in January 2004, continues to be exhibited at art museums, public space and other venues today, more than four years later. Yasuhiro Suzuki is steadily expanding the realm of his endeavors beyond art exhibitions, encompassing energetic involvement in design shows, events and other means of conveying his unique creative vision.