Empty Orchestra, 2min38, 2025
Empty Orchestra is a karaoke-style video that reappropriates the visual codes of the 1980s–90s: blue background, yellow text, and the familiar rhythm of scrolling lyrics. Each frame features a lyric excerpt from a well-known pop song; when sequenced, these fragments form a new, recomposed song, melancholic despite its seemingly light tone. With the sound removed, the piece engages the viewer’s own memory, relying on their internal recall of melodies and emotional associations to fill in the blanks. The work explores the unconscious dimension of language acquisition through pop culture: how, even before grammar, radio choruses and repeated lyrics shape our first emotional connection to a foreign language. Empty Orchestra, the literal translation of "karaoke" from Japanese, becomes a space of emotional collage, revealing the latent sadness in popular hits and reflecting on our relationship to language, memory, and cultural translation.