Dislocation and the fetishization of relationships underlie the work of Japanese artist Meiro Koizumi and no more so than in My Voice Would Reach You. In a video documenting a performance of sorts, a male protagonist makes an idealised telephone call that falls on deaf ears. The man pours out his thoughts and emotions to his mother, amidst a backdrop of a busy Tokyo street, but on the other end of the line a call centre employee is revealed to be desperately trying to make sense of what she is hearing.

Reflecting on both the estrangement of life in the city and the folly of modern familial relationships, Koizumi contrasts humour with heartfelt emotion to create an absurd scenario that is compounded by the lead actor’s own experience of losing a mother. Here and in his other work, he uses video in a way that documents performances, conversations and constructed scenarios to explore the psychology of urban relationships and modern living.