"With In the Liquid Amber Within the Ivory Porcelain, Tomoko Sauvage pursues her fascinating work of hydrophonic auscultation. This work, while following a certain continuity, stands out by focusing on the purity of form of the feedbacks generated, circumscribed and modulated by the aquatic environment. Tomoko Sauvage’s work often explores the relationship between the medium of water and acoustic space, creating a dialogue and encouraging the interaction of sound energies that travel from one medium to the other.

In the Liquid Amber Within the Ivory Porcelain was composed combining two elements: amplified singing bubbles emitted from “fortune biscuit”, unglazed and porous ceramic pieces, and hydrophonic feedback, both played with Sauvage’s instrument, called Waterbowls (porcelain bowls, water, hydrophones). The title is taken from Okakura Kakuzo’s Book of Tea (1906), where we read how tea lovers in ancient times used all senses to appreciate tea rituals in a playful manner, including auditory and visual pleasures and in particular, of bubbles produced by boiling water. In these bubbles, they saw fish eyes and strings of pearls, and heard rainstorms in bamboo forests and raging ocean waves [...]"