Tomoko Sauvage

Buloklok, 2025.

Glass, water, hydrophones, pumps, tubes, sound system.

Glass blown by Takashi Hamada.

Fluid Time

Buloklok is a sound installation conceived in 2022 by artist and composer Tomoko Sauvage. Born in Japan and based in Paris, Sauvage is known for musical works and performances that explore the vibration and sounds of varied materials, such as water, ceramic bowls and shells, investigating their potential as sound instruments and using chance as a method of composition.

Inside aquariums, glass sculptures with shapes similar to those of shells or conches are submerged in water and produce air bubbles, emitting a sound that is picked up by hydrophones. The sound installation works as a water blowing instrument automated by air pumps. Just as living beings breathe at different speeds and patterns, the sculptures release bubbles from their “mouths” in different pulsations, with varying notes and rhythms, depending on the cavity formed in the sculptures made of blown glass and the pressure of the pumped air.

An object of great interest in Sauvage's work is the clepsydra, also known as the water clock – one of the first systems created by humanity to measure time – which functions with the gradual flow of water. The idea of elastic time, defined by the observation of the movements and changes of the elements of nature, is contained in the work presented here. With the air escaping the glass sculptures, Buloklok becomes a kind of non-linear metronome with fluid times and sounds. 

Presented for the first time in a single, large aquarium with 12 sculptures, specially designed for the JHSP, the work dialogues with the circular shape of the exhibition design which refers to ripples of water, so that the sounds of the bubbles echo throughout the space, merging with the other contents of the exhibition. Creating unpredictable dynamics, the artist investigates the sound and visual properties of water while causing us to reflect on the subjectivity of time.