A roller-coaster, a Ferris wheel and a helter-skelter now fill a gallery in Islington as part of the yuri suzuki onomatopia exhibition. Each ride has its own soundtrack, and all of them are moving.
Yuri Suzuki was born in Tokyo. He has worked in London since moving here in 2005, making sound art, design and electronic music. From 2018 to 2024, he was a partner at Pentagram.
His latest show, “Yuri Suzuki: Onomatopia,” opened at Osh Gallery. The space sits inside Pentagram’s London headquarters at The Old Sorting House, 46 Essex Road, N1 8LN. Writer, curator and Wallpaper* contributor Vicky Richardson co-curated the exhibition.
Suzuki often uses sound to shape space. This show extends that approach, with sound now helping to structure the work itself.
Sound in public space takes another form in Athens. Clinamen: Athens’ Musical Outdoor Sound Experience offers a playful take on music in an open-air setting.
What visitors find at the yuri suzuki onomatopia exhibition
The show draws on Suzuki’s ongoing research into large public spaces built for display and leisure. He looks at amusement parks, world fairs and expos. His focus is on how sound and landscape can combine into structure, and in this show, into movement.
The gallery holds a roller-coaster, a Ferris wheel, dodgems, a helter-skelter and a sonic carousel. Every piece is colourful and set in motion. Each attraction plays its own soundtrack, which draws visitors in.
Suzuki explains the thinking behind the work. “Sound can be a powerful tool for good and bad, but it is often overlooked in a world that is dominated by visual culture. My Onomatopian dioramas use the forms that create sound to build a landscape of escape, from where we can look back at reality and consider how we want the world to be,” he says.
For inspiration, Suzuki turned to real-life theme parks, including the Disney attractions, and to World Expos. The amusement park dioramas take those public spectacles and rebuild them around sound.
Mechanics and light can stage an experience much like these rides do. DuckUnit’s Light and Mechanics for Art and Concerts shows how kinetic design works in live performance.
A follow-on from the Royal Academy
This new show continues work Suzuki presented at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2025. That display, titled “Coaster of Sounds (Onomatopoeia Series),” was curated by Ryan Gander.
Suzuki’s website, yurisuzuki.com, describes Onomatopia as a sonic amusement park. In that description, architecture becomes an instrument, and sound, movement and play reshape how people use public space. The same site lists a wider body of work, including OTOTNOMORI, a sound forest in Shanghai‘s Jing’an Sculpture Park.
“Yuri Suzuki: Onomatopia” runs from 10 November 2026 to 7 January 2027 at Osh Gallery, The Old Sorting House, 46 Essex Road, London N1 8LN.
The exhibition makes a simple argument. Sound shapes how people experience a place, and the fairground is a useful model for thinking about that. Visitors who step inside may find they hear the city differently afterwards.
Via wallpaper.com
Frequently asked questions
When and where is the Yuri Suzuki Onomatopia exhibition on?
The exhibition runs from 10 November 2026 to 7 January 2027. It is held at Osh Gallery, The Old Sorting House, 46 Essex Road, London N1 8LN, which sits inside Pentagram’s London headquarters.
What attractions are included in the Yuri Suzuki Onomatopia exhibition?
The gallery holds a roller-coaster, a Ferris wheel, dodgems, a helter-skelter and a sonic carousel. Each attraction plays its own soundtrack and is set in motion.
What inspired the rides in Yuri Suzuki’s Onomatopia exhibition?
Suzuki turned to real-life theme parks, including the Disney attractions, and to World Expos for inspiration. The amusement park dioramas rebuild these public spectacles around sound.
Who co-curated the Yuri Suzuki Onomatopia exhibition at Osh Gallery?
Vicky Richardson, a writer, curator and Wallpaper* contributor, co-curated the exhibition. The show was presented at Osh Gallery in London.
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