Psychedelic provocateur Keiichi Tanaami turned his attention towards making video art in the seventies. These videos contained images that drew on Pop Art for their color and dynamic compositions. These works functioned as kinetic paintings that challenged the role of the spectator.
4-Eyes (1975) finds Tanaami playing with overlays and other printing effects to create a sort of moving collage. There are three planes of images overlayed and one image that is mirrored. This set of four distinct images gives the film its title.
4-Eyes asserts itself as a kind of optical overload that is discernible to presumably four sets of eyes. In this image set motion is repetitive with the exception of the image of a female model. The other two planes undulate and swirl in predictable patterns as colors change and manipulate the illusion of depth.
The mirrored image of the model is unpredictable and brings an organic element to the proceedings. This dual image suggests the intangibility of the image and offers the viewer something concrete in the form of a suggested narrative. Of course the narrative in question is highly reduced and is linked exclusively to the model’s motions such as the crossing of her legs.
The cumulative effects of Tanaami are a kind of visual music. 4-Eyes provokes the same response as psychedelic music. The varying permutations of the image set functioning as movements in music that is aided by a soundtrack of industrial noise that juxtaposes the slick modernity of the images. 4-Eyes represents modernist minimalism at its most playful and accessible.
