About

Natalie TSYU is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher based in Oslo - Tokyo. One of the most important aspects of her artistic practice is an exploration of the environment. For her research, Natalie turns to the ethnography of the place through the archaism of the locality, texts, and the memory of generations. Immersion in folklore and anthropology of movement allows her to find spaces for rethinking artistic performative methods in the context of the collective memory of a space.

TSYU manifests her research projects through experimental para-archives, audio-visual narrations, sound, and performance, accompanied by artistic books, graphics, and diverse forms of essays. She graduated from The Oslo National Academy (Master's Degree) and is part of the artistic research project DUNKE-DUNK related to the reconstruction of being in the north of Norway, which forms a method of (re)reading, opening up a space for interdisciplinary cooperation and meetings with the region, history, and art communities between the countries of the Barents region. The research received sponsorship from The Norwegian Barents Secretariat in 2020. In 2022, Natalie received a Japanese government scholarship for: (Un)mute performance: Developing an artistic methodology for ontological instruments based on the history of sound art in Japan (1980-2000) and Hirayama Ikuo Culture and Arts Award 平山郁夫文化芸術賞 in 2023. Currently, she is conducting the research project [Matter]iality of Memory – Tracing Invisible Roots in Hokkaido under the JREX fellowship and GEIDAI, Global Art Practice program. The recent artworks have been exhibited in Kunsthall 3,14 Bergen, Norway; Spriten Kunsthall Skien, Norway; Roots&Arts Shiraoi, Japan; ONA Project Room Tokyo, Japan; JCCAC Hong Kong; Above the Clouds Gallery London; UK, Komagome SOKO Tokyo, Japan.

Interview:

You often use sound in your work, sound is one of the important elements for you which you call an “ingredient”, what is sound for you?

- The sound performs as a delicate archaeologist of a place. It shows the place without any embellishments, reflecting each macro process of our momentary stay of finding and observing. Sound reveals many processes between us, in us. By listening, we take a step toward the perception of a place: speaking, singing, whispering, touching, and being silent. By using many languages and many touches, by listening, we form subtle and delicate relationships in places of endless noise streams, where each has its own sound, visible or invisible.

In my artistic practice, I often work with sound as a material tool for awareness and exploration of the environment. The sound in my works takes on a visual form and helps to find the very borderline between visual and sound art, the border where the one who can't see - can hear, and the one who can't hear - can see.

The space of this sound creates its own significant immune structure, allowing us to listen to the elements that preserve the landscapes of isolated places. This sound takes the form of a guide, becomes an archaeologist of these places, and opens up another way for us to communicate with each other and the space around us.

Sound is one of the most essential ingredients of our being.