The inspiration for this installation came to Takatoku while reading a book called “建築光幻学 - 透光不透視の世界” – “Architectural light illusion – the world of translucent insanity”. In this book, the authors (Hasegawa Ko and Kurokawa Tetsuro) write about architecture and light in spaces using poetry. It is one of Takatoku’s most favorite books that helps to imagine the architectural light only by using words. In this book the word "透光不透視" (translucent insanity) is frequently used and it means to let light through but to block visibility. For example, it refers to the type of light generated by a shoji (a curtain or a translucent door). Takatoku understood this ideology while watching a goldfish in an aquarium and became fascinated by the phenomenon of "total reflection" created by water and light inside. It looked like a transparent mirror, which gave him an idea. It inspired him! Following the thoughts described by ”透光不透視" (translucent insanity) he understood that a visual impairment can be produced by light even while being completely transparent. So he decided to look for this unique transparency and created 4 types of cubes from 3 mm acrylic sheets, which he filled with water up to 70%. He chose these cubes because they seemed to represent the natural phenomenon, he saw in the aquarium, in the most beautiful but very structured way. The cubes he created could be turned into bricks and served as a tool to build different shapes. Like when we were children, one could play with them as building blocks and use imagination to make any new shape desired. Taka’s cubes having different shapes and dimensions slot together like puzzles in his hands, after 5 months of hard work this great chamber was born. The world Takatoku created resembles a mirage – it is a space of its own, a room which is and isn’t transparent in the same time. Visitors are more than welcome to wander inside its walls and observe the beautiful rainbow-coloured light that appears from the prisms, or see different shades of light reflecting from each and every cube differently, one can get lost in the multitude of effects being born inside this mirage cube. This work has won various awards in Japan.
