EIJI SUMI
Sawang Sawai Siwilai 
Boundary of society in conflict through the balance act of play
Eiji Sumi
Playground has become an artistic object for Sumi. "Here and There" is an artwork elaborated by seesaw, also known as a teeter-totter where audience can play and be among others as they take part in an experience within an environment. Unlike a regular seesaw in the playground, this circular installation which accommodate around 30 people has a platform with pathways, benches, and standing areas allowing the audience to move from one side to another as they please and the installation tilts up and down with the movement of the participants. Once audience start to play, audience react with the balance of the classical physics that an action at one point has an influence at another point which turning effect of a force is called the moment of the force and is found by multiplying the force by its distance from the pivot. Participant promptly realize that the weight of the people and their locations will generate various ways of balance act with the condition of the critical mass and physical sensation of unconventional the movement.
According to J Huizinga “Theory of play constitutes a training of the young creature for the serious work that life will demand later on, or it serves as an exercise in restraint needful to the individuals.
But Sumi’s intension of play is not starting from the assumption to serve for theory of play or the scientific education of the classic physics but rather play as a form of activity as social function in questioning of what play is in itself and what it means for the player. According to the J. Huizinga “The fact that play and culture are actually interwoven with one another but was neither observed nor expressed. And we shall observe their action in play itself and thus try to understand play as a cultural factor in life.”
Sumi’s work aims to investigate the element of the play and portrays the political landscape as microcosm of the world where the political particularism polarizes the conflict between racial, religious, ideological and geopolitical interests and touches upon the context of constant power disputes between country, opposite parties or family in smaller scale.
Through the observation of Sumi’s work, player who sit near the center from pivot realizes intuitively their location has less influential for the movement, then player explore to move to more influential areas, but some cases, due to the limited influential space because of the circular shape of the installation, player may become supporter figure of the most influential player to achieve their goal of changing the direction of the movement or keeping balance. (Fig.1. 2) In other cases, player was only Mother and daughter, mother try to move to the other side but in reality, mother’s weight is not enough to carry over the weight of the daughter to change the direction of the movement, then mother have to bring father or to wait other player to achieve their goal of creating movement for their daughter to give an experience of the physical sensation of the movement. (Fig. 3.4)
Play is not the mission and it is for enjoyment of the leisure in free time, In this sense Sumi’s work invite audiences from the public viewer to unordinary and non-commercial experiences as a configuration of contemporary art.
But, Sumi’s intension to depict the boundary of our society in conflict through the balance act of play seems to contradict the sense of seriousness against nature of play activity. As J. Huizinga says “Play is a voluntary activity and the first main characteristic of play: that is free, is in fact freedom. And a second characteristic is closely connected with this, namely that play is not “ordinary” or “real” life. With this quality of freedom and unreality of play in concern, Sumi aims to bring temporal perfection of our behavior of play separated from our restraint within the perspectives of imperfect and inequitable world.
2022
Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. Routledge and K. Paul, 1949. P2,4,5,8,10