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Almost no one has seen the work, and yet it gets talked about. Making Rumors (2026) takes that mechanism and builds it into the work itself: each form is placed so that few people will encounter it directly, and many will only ever hear of it, second-hand, from someone else.
Making Rumors—Night Rumor《うわさを作る—夜のうわさ》, 2026
Installation view: Gathering Matters and Mediations《大事なことは何かを見つけたとき》
Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan
Oil pastel on paper, 51 × 76 cm, framed
Collection: Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan
Photo: © Takafumi Sakanaka, courtesy of the artist
At Art Tower Mito in 2026, the work took the form of a single drawing hung in the gallery. In it, a beam of light falls from a tower onto a bench, and someone sits inside the circle of light. Nothing else in the room said whether this had happened, or ever would.
Making Rumors—Night Rumor《うわさを作る—夜のうわさ》, 2026
Plaza, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan
Dimensions variable. Light, bench
Collection: Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan
Photo: © Takehiro Iikawa, courtesy of the artist
By day it is an ordinary bench on the lawn beside the museum, and there is nothing to see. What circulated instead was an account: someone out running at night had seen an alien near Art Tower Mito.
Making Rumors—Night Rumor《うわさを作る—夜のうわさ》, 2026
Plaza, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan
Dimensions variable. Light, bench
Photo: © Takafumi Sakanaka, courtesy of the artist
Making Rumors—Night Rumor《うわさを作る—夜のうわさ》, 2026
Plaza, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan
Dimensions variable. Light, bench
Photo: © Takafumi Sakanaka, courtesy of the artist
Anyone who followed the rumor to the bench after dark was found by a spotlight thrown from the top of the hundred-metre tower, and cut out of the darkness like an actor alone on a stage. A passer-by might post that they had seen a UFO.
Making Rumors—Night Rumor《うわさを作る—夜のうわさ》, 2026
Plaza, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan
Dimensions variable. Light, bench
Photo: © Takehiro Iikawa, courtesy of the artist
Photo: © Takehiro Iikawa, courtesy of the artist
Those who came to check the rumor and those who arrived by accident did not have the same experience. Rumor, reputation, and prior knowledge all reach a limit. What is left over is the moment itself, which none of them can account for.
Making Rumors—Night Rumor《うわさを作る—夜のうわさ》, 2026
Plaza, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan
Dimensions variable. Light, bench
Photo: © Takehiro Iikawa, courtesy of the artist
Photo: © Takehiro Iikawa, courtesy of the artist
Photo: © Takehiro Iikawa, courtesy of the artist
Making the Spreading Part of the Work
Making the Spreading Part of the Work
Almost no one has seen the work, and yet it gets talked about. I began to think that this mechanism—the way something spreads by being retold—could be taken into the work on purpose, rather than left to happen afterwards.
Decorator Crab—Making Rumors《デコレータークラブ—うわさをつくる》, 2026
Plaza, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan
Dimensions variable. Light, bench
Photo: © Takehiro Iikawa, courtesy of the artist
Photo: © Takehiro Iikawa, courtesy of the artist
Photo: © Takehiro Iikawa, courtesy of the artist
Photo: © Takehiro Iikawa, courtesy of the artist
Photo: © Takehiro Iikawa, courtesy of the artist
The spotlight has a precedent. Fade out, Fade up (2012) was made in the middle of the night, in the only hours the artist had free, in places where there was nothing to see. A strong light was used there too, to make a frame and bring something into view.
Photo: © Takafumi Sakanaka, courtesy of the artist
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