Ephemeral experience

Step into a world where mist becomes art and the invisible forces of nature come alive. A.A. Murakami, the visionary duo of Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves, redefines what it means to experience art. With installations that breathe, glow, and vanish before your eyes, they challenge us to see the impermanence of life in new ways. Their Floating World exhibition, inspired by the ethereal transitions between the physical and digital, creates spaces where science, technology, and nature collide in breathtaking harmony.

hube: Your Fordlândia project reimagines a failed industrial utopia. Do you see yourselves as ‘archaeologists of failure’, and how do you strike the balance between historical homage and creative reinvention?

Azusa Murakami & Alexander Groves: With Fordlândia, we were definitely fascinated by the failure. We have a lot of sympathy for ambition that overreaches. We always intended to make the project half homage and historical storytelling of this fascinating place and half an imaginative collection that explores what sustainable forest products could be.

h: In Infinity Blue, you pay tribute to one of the planet’s oldest life forms – cyanobacteria – by transforming their role into a monumental sculpture. What inspired you to take this microscopic life and give it such a grand scale?

AM&AG: We were shortlisted to create a permanent centrepiece artwork for the Eden Project in 2018. The brief was to celebrate life on Earth, and we did a lot of research and learned so much. It was astonishing to discover cyanobacteria, which, some 3.8 billion years ago, underwent photosynthesis and released oxygen for the first time into the oceans and air. That this microscopic organism is visible in great blooms from space and accounts for around 70% of the oxygen in our atmosphere was incredible to us. Cyanobacteria’s existence is fundamental to our story of evolution and to our very breath today. They exchange breath with us now, rolling in our oceans like gods.

h: In Wave Particle Duplex, you capture the essence of matter in plasma-filled tubes. How do you approach blending art, science, and technology to create experiences that defy traditional categorisation?

AM&AG: We just follow what we are most curious about. The more you pull on a thread, the further it takes you, and before you know it, you’re deep in plasma science, experimenting with gas combinations, power supplies, and glassblowing. We are driven to push what’s possible.

h: Your practice spans from sculpture and installations to film and cinema. How do you decide which medium is right for a given project, and what advantages does the film offer over physical installations?

AM&AG: We go with what feels right. It’s not easy to explain the rules, but you develop a strong sense of some kind of ‘art logic’, which is as strong as a moral sense. It might seem illogical from the outside, but if it feels authentic and true, then it will be the right direction. Film is the best way to make your world without compromises; you only see what’s in the frame, so you can really control everything. Real installations are harder because you often have to compromise – whether it’s illuminating a fire escape or having a grippy floor for health and safety. Still, nothing is as powerful as being in the presence of something real that shares the same physical realm as you.

h: In Floating World at M+ Museum, you explore the tension between the physical and imagined. What key messages or emotions do you hope visitors take away from this exhibition, and how do you see the show expanding on your previous explorations of impermanence?

AM&AG: There is the intention you have before creating the work and the intention you have once you’ve made the work and experienced it yourself for the first time. That moment of discovery reveals the qualities of the work and informs your intentions for the next project. For Floating World, we were struck by how it materialised the intangible matter of existence. You see bubbles emerge, form, grow, detach, drift into space, and then burst, releasing a cloud and slipping out of existence. It’s a cycle you witness again and again, giving time itself a brief material form.

h: The title Floating World evokes ukiyo-e, the Japanese art of the ‘floating world.’ How did traditional Japanese concepts influence this exhibition, and how do you balance these cultural references with your modern, futuristic aesthetic?

AM&AG: Ukiyo-e depicted the Edo period, where people from different classes – merchants, samurai, courtesans – could mix in new urban centres. They existed in a ‘floating world’. We use this term to describe a modern situation where reality is based on both physical and digital presence. For example, you might talk to someone on your phone while they’re in another country and discuss a third place while walking in a city halfway across the world. Once the call ends, there’s a moment of slight disorientation as you reorient yourself. We are floating between the physical and digital all the time, and both are as real as each other.

h: Your work often features fleeting natural elements like fog and mist. How do these materials help evoke ideas of temporality, and how do you think they shape how audiences experience the boundary between the natural world and human-made environments?

AM&AG: Fog, mist, water, plasma – they all exist in different states of matter and are very lively. You can see the interplay between gravity, electromagnetic forces, temperature, intermolecular attraction, and more. These invisible forces are briefly given form as if the unseen world surfaces in the perceivable one. This makes audiences aware of how much lies beyond their perception and invites them to ponder the great unknown.

h: With installations like Between the Clouds, you merge natural phenomena with technology. How do you see the balance between these two forces evolving in your work, especially as we increasingly rely on tech to mediate our experience of the world?

AM&AG: Ephemeral Tech is a term we created to describe this combination. We’re passionate about materials, and tech art often lacks materiality, relying on interfaces from the tech industry like hard screens or LED arrays. We use technology to push artistic possibilities while maintaining a visceral, emotional connection to the physical world. Though there’s a lot of code and digital work behind the scenes, the interface audiences experience is tactile, fleeting, and engages all their senses.

h: Many of your installations, such as Dawn Particles, invite human interaction. How do you design these experiences to deepen the viewer’s engagement with the themes of temporality, presence, and perception?

AM&AG: There’s always a request for interaction, but we often question the quality of that interaction. Is it enriching the experience or just included for the sake of it? At its best, interaction is an experience where the thing you’re engaging with exists in the same space and under the same physical laws as you. It’s temporal, as are you, and you become aware that you’re both improbable gatherings of atoms. In an infinite and ethereal universe, you and the artwork share one fleeting moment that will never come again.