Rintaro Fuse

Biography:

Rintaro Fuse is a Japanese artist and poet. His practice delves into the evolving nature of human connection in the digital age. He explores themes of solitude and intimacy, particularly focusing on the shifts brought about by the proliferation of smartphones and digital communication. Fuse employs a diverse array of mediums - including video installations, VR, AR, web-based platforms, poetry, and curatorial projects - to investigate how technology mediates our experiences of presence and absence.

His solo exhibitions include Dead Corpus (2022, PARCO Museum Tokyo), All First Love Songs (2021, The 5th Floor), and Eve’s Butcher (2022, SNOW Contemporary). He has participated in group shows such as Does the Future Sleep Here? (2024, National Museum of Western Art), The Timeless Imagination of Yves Klein (2024, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa), and New Flatland (2021, NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC]).

Fuse holds a BFA and MFA from Tokyo University of the Arts. In 2024, he was selected for Forbes Japan’s list of “30 Under 30 Who Are Changing the World.”

Artwork overview:

This is a sundial built for a world after the death of the sun. Its purpose is not to measure time but to preserve the sun in our imaginations, in a night that will never end. The monumental scale of the work was conceived to multiply and dislocate the ways we imagine the beginning - or the end - of the world.

The structure is composed of polished stainless steel: industrial yet ethereal. It reflects its surroundings, drawing viewers into its soft metallic glow. At its core are three gnomons, upright poles traditionally used in sundials. Each is aligned with a different North Star: Thuban (past), Polaris (present), and Vega (future), and points to a different axis of time, inviting reflection on planetary motion and deep time.

Historically, sundials embody humanity’s attempt to understand celestial rhythms. Their alignment with Earth’s axis and the North Star reflects an ancient continuity, one that now confronts the sun’s mortality. In the 19th century, physicist Lord Kelvin proposed that the sun would eventually die. From that moment, the sun could no longer represent eternity.

This work is not apocalyptic but grounded in a material vision of disappearance. It invites us to think of eternity not as permanence, but as persistence through absence.

Installed on a rooftop, next to the backdrop of Jean Nouvel’s perforated dome at Louvre Abu Dhabi, the sculpture resonates with the building’s architectural cosmos - casting shadows even without a sun.