Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves
A Thousand Layer of Stomach
2024
Film
A Thousand Layer of Stomach serves as a striking juxtaposition between the deep time evolution of nature with the rapid adaptation of culture, industry, and urban living. Amidst the looming threat of climate catastrophe, our reliance on the natural world has become more critical than ever. Paradoxically, our lives have never felt more detached from it.
It harnesses three distinct elements—the lurid glow of neon signs, the mathematical patterns of shellfish, and the billowing clouds of steam—and transforms them into artistic mediums. Through this artistic lens, the seafood restaurant blooms into a series of contemplative spaces, each beckoning us to reflect on the spiritual mysteries of the cosmos, the nature of existence, and the existence of nature.
About Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves
Azusa Murakami (JP) and Alexander Groves (UK) are the artists behind experimental design practice Studio Swine. Studio Swine’s films have been awarded at Cannes and other film festivals around the world. Their work has been featured in both the Venice Art and Architecture Biennales and in the permanent collections of MOMA New York, Pompidou Centre in Paris, Vitra Design Museum Germany and M+ Hong Kong. They established A.A.Murakami in 2020, whose immersive installations fused science and art to create their ongoing ‘Ephemeral Tech’ series; a type of work which combines their own technology with ethereal materials or states of matter which play with all the senses to create unnatural phenomena. They participated in Design Trust Futures Studio 2019 as mentors for the "Heritage is Innovation" curatorial programme, and received Design Trust Arts Prize Dynamic Duos 2024.