A Quiet Departure: Overview and Background
Presented in 2023 as the centerpiece of the Return to the Future exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Go Shibata's The Beginning of Things is regarded as an important work marking a turning point in his career. Consisting of a 15-minute experimental short film and a related installation, it asks the fundamental question, “What is the source of creation?” Using memories of a childhood visit to the seaside as its motif, it takes sensory elements such as the sound of waves, reflections of light, and the texture of sand to an extreme level of abstraction before reconstructing them. The film is entirely monochrome, with intense white light occasionally bursting in like a flash and leaving a strong impression on viewers' retinas. This minimalist expression differs sharply from Shibata's commercial films and music videos, signaling a return to more experimental and personal expression. The title The Beginning of Things refers both to exploring the roots of creative activity and to returning to his own origins as an artist.
Rediscovering the Senses: Techniques and the Audiovisual Experience
The most innovative aspect of The Beginning of Things lies in its distinctive audiovisual expression. Unlike conventional moving-image works, it deliberately blurs the boundary between sight and hearing. The film uses images with a distinctive texture created by digitally processing analog film; coarse grain and fluctuations in light give them a tactile quality. The sound design breaks environmental sounds down to their limits and reconstructs them, creating an ambiguous acoustic space where waves sometimes sound like a human heartbeat and sometimes like electronic music. Particularly noteworthy is the relationship between image and sound: they do not always correspond one to one, but sometimes synchronize and sometimes diverge. This divergence creates a subtle perceptual unease that prompts viewers to reconsider everyday sensory experience. In the installation, images projected onto three screens and a 12-channel surround system literally envelop viewers in the work. Art critics have described it as “a return to primordial experience through the dismantling and reconstruction of the senses,” praising its attempt to expand the conventional boundaries of moving-image art.
Exploring Memory and Time: The Deeper Themes
Although it can be experienced on the surface as an abstract audiovisual work, beneath it lie the multilayered themes of memory and time. The images of the sea at its core are said to be based on Shibata's memory of his first visit to the ocean at age five. What is interesting, however, is that the work is not simply a recollection or reminiscence: it takes the uncertainty and fluidity of memory itself as its subject. The recurring wave patterns change little by little, appearing the same without ever being identical. This recalls the parable of Heraclitus's river, suggesting the impossibility of returning to the same memory. Time in the film also follows an unusual structure: it does not proceed linearly, but sometimes stops, sometimes reverses, and sometimes accelerates. This nonlinear representation reflects subjective human experiences of time and the sense of time within memory. In the artist statement accompanying the exhibition, Shibata says, “We are always trying to return to a ‘beginning,’ but it is always only a new beginning.” The paradox of the impossibility and inevitability of returning to one's origins forms the philosophical foundation of the work.
An Artistic Turning Point: Its Place and Reception
The Beginning of Things drew a major response in the art world as a work marking an important turning point in the artistic identity of Go Shibata, who had achieved international success through commercial films and music videos. Whereas his earlier works had attracted attention for their narrative qualities and visual splendor, this piece deliberately excludes those elements to pursue more essential, reductive expression. The change in direction initially divided fans and critics. After a special exhibition at the Venice Biennale, however, its artistic value came to be widely recognized, and it is now held in museum collections in Japan and abroad as one of the leading experimental moving-image works of contemporary Japan. Its influence on younger filmmakers is particularly notable. The example of a commercially successful artist returning to his origins and moving toward more experimental expression gave many young artists an opportunity to reconsider the essence of creation. After the work's success, Shibata said, “I want to pursue possibilities of expression that go beyond the binary opposition between commerce and art.” The Beginning of Things has become more than a single work: it is a catalyst questioning the importance of returning to one's origins in contemporary moving-image expression.
