Video made by Shiho Kano in 2002.

Synopsis
When we are in the dark, we can see only the sign of the space. The moment the light comes into the room, we can see another space. This space is the incorporated like smoke construction that is composed of the dark, light and time.

Film notes
'Looking closely at a seventeenth-century still life, you will often see how the surroundings of the tableau, which are actually outside the scope of the painting, are nevertheless part of the image. The reflection of a light source in the scale of a fish; a space beyond our field of vision, caught by a mirror on the wall. These are hints that unemphatically enter into our perception, thus creating a suggestion of a larger world than we can see in the foreground. For her video still lifes, Shiho Kano makes use of timeless objects from everyday life: an apple, a rocking chair, and in this case a stick of incense in a glass burner. The stick keeps on burning motionlessly, with so much concentration that you can almost smell its fragrance. Then a scene begins to unfold around it. With light and shadow, time and sound, Kano sketches a room, a door, a space behind the door, and the presence of a human being. Of all these elements, the camera and our eyes only register the traces they leave, just out of focus. Incense concentrates on the shadowy transition between perception and understanding, where meaning is newly born and can still take on all kinds of shapes.' - Vinken & van Kampen (from the online catalogue Netherlands Media Art Institute)