RECONNECTING: A Vision of Unity by Kengo Kito

Since early 2020, because of the lockdowns and restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been missing close contact with each other and yearning to reconnect with their families, friends, and communities. In the summer of 2021, as California began easing restrictions and re-opening businesses and public places, JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles opened a unique exhibition that celebrated the coming together of communities after months of isolation.

The exhibition, which was held from June 16 through September 16, 2021, featured a site-specific installation by Japanese artist Kengo Kito (b. 1977) using hula hoops to explore ideas of connection and reconnection. In his hula hoop installations, Kito opens up the hoops and links them to each other end-to-end, creating one expansive, interconnected whole that fills the space with color, line, and light. His first hula hoop exhibition in the United States, the colorful structure at JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles served as a metaphor for the interconnectedness of all humanity, a theme that resonates deeply today. The installation also coincided with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games and aligned strongly with one of its core concepts: Unity in Diversity.

Kito is one of Japan's most innovative contemporary artists, repurposing everyday objects such as handheld mirrors, umbrellas, and hula hoops in bold, colorful installations that often connect modern materials with ideas rooted in traditional Japanese philosophy, culture, and art. With hula hoops, Kito explores the close relationship between the circle, the line, and space in his work. When a hula hoop is formed, sen ga en ni naru (a line becomes a circle), and when a hoop is reopened, en ga sen ni naru (the circle becomes a line), he explains. By connecting several hoops end-to-end, Kito creates long lines that in turn become new, larger circles that all intersect with each other—a colorful, uplifting metaphor for our interconnectedness. Also important is the interaction of these lines and circles with each other and the surrounding space of the gallery. Each plastic hoop contains space and frames space, and when they are all connected, they fill the gallery space. Yet, the room remains full of space, or emptiness, in a sense.

Although not intentional, Kito's hula hoop installations also resonate with Zen Buddhist philosophy and art, in which the circle, line, and space have long been concepts used to question and explore reality and our place in it. In Zen Buddhism, the circle is a form that is both perfectly whole and empty, inviting questions about fullness, the void, and the nature of reality, while a straight line can symbolize directness and a spiritual path forward. Moreover, space and the void are frequently the focus of Zen contemplation. The Japanese word kū—often translated into English as "emptiness"—is used in Zen Buddhism to describe a dynamic and constantly evolving state—not so much empty as filled with untapped potential.

In the exhibition RECONNECTING, Kito's repurposed plastic hula hoops served as a sort of mitate, a Japanese poetic and visual device in which a modern image substitutes for a classical motif—here a hula-hoop structure for Zen circles, lines, and space. In this installation and much of his other recent work, Kito forms connections that stretch beyond the physical and delve deeply into the realms of philosophy and emotion.

Kengo Kito (b. 1977-). Installation view of RECONNECTING at JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles. June 16 through September 16, 2021. © JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles