M+, Hong Kong © Miyajima Tatsuo. Photo: M+, Hong
NARRATOR:
Region No. 43701–No. 43900 is an installation by Miyajima Tatsuo from 1998. Made with LED lights, aluminium panels, and electrical circuits, this work is displayed on a wall, measuring around two metres tall and eight and a half metres long.
The installation comprises two hundred rectangular LED devices on black aluminium panels, arranged in twenty columns of ten. Each counter displays a sequence made up of numbers between one and nine. Most of these sequences are shown in red, with only a few in green. The numbers keep changing, some more quickly than others. Immediately above and below the aluminium panels, the circuits controlling the changing of the numbers are exposed.
The work is displayed in an almost pitch-black space. From afar, you can only see rows of illuminated numbers. The green counters seem random, creating diagonal lines that cut across the predominately red layout. However, if you inspect the installation vertically, column by column, you will notice there is a green counter for every six red counters. The LED lights cast their reflections on the floor beneath the work, leaving rows of red that seem to extend downward.
Upon even closer examination, you will see there are twenty numerical slots in each counter, with each number changing at different speeds. Sometimes, all the slots are filled, and sometimes only a few. Some of the digits appear in full, while others may have missing segments.
Visitors can move around or sit on benches to watch the two hundreds sets of numbers changing in an incessant cycle.