Each letter is a sound and each word is a collection of letters and a collection of sounds. And each sound that we produce sets into motion a number of facial muscles which help to make it possible for the sound to be produced. The sounds produced in Japanese are found in the Japanese and also the Latin alphabet. In this piece the letters/sounds spoken are A, I, U, E, O and NN. The face is manipulated and seems to become fluid before returning to its original, neutral state. Image and sound go together, but are now not connected in a way you would expect from the enunciation of a sound: they are a combination of the comical and the absurd. The visual distortion of the face is carried out to the extreme here, which results in a visible distinction between three aspects that are connected, but do not overlap: the image, the letter and the sound. This is also why the six images of AIUEO NN differ, and the sounds slow down. Our entrance to the world of sound and meaning and, therefore, reality, is through language, sound and image, with each being used in its own way. This is the game that Iimura plays, not only in the installation of the same name, but also again with this CD-Rom. The 'differance' is for him an example of multiculturalism, a connection of unity in diversity, in which Iimura plays with the expressive and indicative function of a sign, in sound and in image.
– Carla Doekendijk
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Digitalization: Kazuhiro Asai
Takahiko Iimura ° 1937, Tokyo (Japan)
Lives and works in Tokyo (Japan)
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1 9 9 8 
