It has been over four
years since the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown in East Japan in 2011,
but contemporary artists continue to respond to the disaster. Bold and often critical, these art practices engage
with the lived experiences of those most affected by the events of 3.11 and
comment on the political climate in Japan.
On May 28th
2015, The Japan Foundation hosted an event at the Free Word Centre in London
entitled: Post
3.11: What Can Art Do? Four Years On: Art and the Disaster. The Japan Foundation invited a panel of
speakers to discuss the transformative potential of art. Each member of the
panel has been following, if not directly involved in, visual practices post 3.11. The panel featured: artist Yoi Kawakubo,
Professor of Risk and Disaster Reduction at UCL Professor David Alexander, independent
researcher Dr. Majella Munro and curator Eiko Honda. The discussion, chaired by Kaori Homma, an
artist and founder of the organisation Art Action UK, provided insight on
cultural practices in East Japan, and looked at how these are represented
internationally.
The
following paragraphs spotlight some of the issues discussed at the event and
illuminate the significance of particular artistic practices post 3.11.
Art as social critique
Researcher
Dr. Majella Munro explains that artistic responses to nuclear proliferation
began in the 1950s, when artists Maruki
Iri and Maruki Toshi began to create The Hiroshima Panels. This series of fifteen panels depicts the
consequences of nuclear disasters, in particular the affect of the nuclear bombs
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although the
panels were initially banned from being exhibited, they are now on permanent display
in the Maruki Gallery in Saitama, Japan[i].
Over time, social critique is becoming more
accepted within cultural practices.
 |
| Detail from 'The Hiroshima Panels'. Image © www.art-for-a-change.com |
Munroe
observed that following the disaster of 3.11 there has been ‘an information vacuum
which has provided fertile ground for artists.’
Many people feel insecure about government advice and statistics, and
are finding creative ways to comment on and challenge the official responses.
One
particularly notable figure, now known internationally as ‘Pointing Man’, was
an employee of TEPCO[ii],
and worked in the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant. Following the nuclear meltdown, TEPCO
installed a live video feed of the power plant.
On 28th August 2011, ‘Pointing Man’, dressed in protective
clothing, positioned himself in front of the camera and pointed at the lens for
20 minutes. Not only did he shatter
any illusion of transparency and openness that the live footage may have
generated, by pointing into the homes and work places of thousands of people in
Japan, he created a sense of mystery that enabled him to communicate a
political message. Later the employee explained
that he was pointing at TEPCO and the Japanese government. His aim was to draw attention to the lack of
response to workers’ rights issues.[iii]
 |
| Image © www.fukushima-diary.com |
Artist
Yoi Kawakubo observes that ‘art can work on a different scale to activism and
journalism’. Art offers a different kind
of engagement- a space for shared
thinking and understanding that begins from a personal subjective
experience. Art doesn’t ‘tell’ the
viewer how to respond, but calls for
a response. Even if this is simply emotional or empathetic it has social
significance.
Professor
David Alexander points out that disasters are human phenomenon. Disasters ‘open a window on society, on human
rights’. Alexander believes that art can
intervene and ‘stop people from forgetting, from expunging the memory’ of
disasters. Memories provide the basis for
the future, they are the backdrop of our experience of the world and often
determine how we respond to new circumstances.
Likewise collective memories can provide opportunities for new responses
and create the chance to understand and prevent future disasters.
Art as social practice
The
events of 3.11 caused many fatalities and losses. Families were fractured and homes destroyed.
In the years following 3.11, the focus on reconstructing cities and reclaiming land
has detracted from rebuilding communities and healing the emotional and social
wounds inflicted by the disaster. Kawakubo explains that communities are being
rearranged and ‘almost broken’ by living in temporary housing locations.
For
many people, participatory art has become a powerful way to re-establish
communities and create platforms for people to share their personal experiences
and feelings following the disaster.
Dr.
Munro identifies Komori Haruka and Seo Natsumi; an artist duo who moved from
Tokyo to Rikuzentakata; an area heavily damaged by the earthquake and
tsunami. Komori and Seo live and work in
Rikuzentakata and document the emotional impact of the government’s rebuilding
programme. Aimed at raising the city by
ten metres by 2018, the rebuilding project dominates the community, allowing
little space and time for shared acts of remembrance or to respond to the specific
needs and desires of the community itself.
Komori and Seo’s documentary films are quiet indictments of this kind of
top-down authoritative governance.
 |
| Rikuzentakata, Image © Komori and Seo |
In
Ireland, Eiko Honda’s recent project Noodles Against the
Machine: the Politics of Food and Artists’ Resistance in Contemporary Japan
explored
the way in which simple acts
of cooking and eating can take on different social significance, depending on
the cultural and political context. In an innovative curatorial gesture, Honda
hosted a cooking class in which she taught participants how to make udon
noodles. At the same time, the class
took the form of an art ‘lecture’ in which the participants discussed other
contemporary culinary artworks that address issues of nuclear contamination and
the existence of a state ‘machine’; The United Brothers Does
this soup taste ambivalent?, Tsuyoshi Ozawa’s Vegetable
Weapon: Saury fish ball hot pot / Tokyo, Tadasu Takamine’s Japan
Syndrome and the phenomena of Japan’s Techno
Udon. By integrating art into participatory creative projects,
Honda embraces new and inclusive curatorial practices that lend themselves more
directly to grassroots political engagement.
 |
| Image © www.curatingcuriosities.tumblr.com |
Social
practice art not only responds to current social issues, it looks ahead into
the future. One of the issues with the
Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant is that it will be highly radioactive for
thousands of years. Human political and
linguistic institutions are yet to last this long, which poses the question of
how to warn future generations of dangerous levels of radiation. Artists and architects are discussing the
possibility of developing Thomas Sebeok’s concept of the ‘nuclear
priesthood’. Religion has provided the
longest standing social institutions. Therefore,
by turning the damaged power plant into a ‘shrine’ (buy encasing it in concrete
and building a religious monument on it), a religious priesthood could guard
the radioactive ‘shrine’ and convey its danger to the next generation and so
on.
Art in an international context
Dr.
Majella Munro observes that most art practices in East Japan haven’t changed in
the past four years, but the art world is
changing. Audiences that previously
shied away from expressions of political criticism are now engaging with
political art practices. Social norms
are changing, and criticism is increasingly understood as a method for
improvement and development.
These
social shifts are significant, not just in Japan, but globally. International audiences are
realising that concerns over nuclear energy production and governmental
responses to disasters are global concerns.
In an increasingly connected world, more and more people feel that a global
democratic crisis is unfolding.
An
expert in the science of disasters, Professor Alexander comments on how fast
the recovery programme has been in Japan.
Normally, he explains, a recovery programme following a disaster of this
magnitude would take up to 25 years, but Japan is likely to complete the
restoration of infrastructure within the next five years. Nevertheless, the psychological and emotional
impact of the disaster will have longer repercussions. This is where art has significance. Alexander explains that art can express a
mood, for example a mood of piety or solidarity, and this can be individual or
collective. Art is a kind of barometer
and has an important role in communicating and nourishing the human
spirit. Politics and science articulate
different realities, but Alexander says that ‘art has answers as much as science’;
it reflects, shares and alters human feelings and emotions.
 |
| 'Monju' Image © Yoi Kawakubo |
Yoi
Kawakubo is here in the UK to take part in the Art Action UK summer residency
programme. The overall aim of the
residency is to provide respite for artists who live in areas affected by a
disaster. By exhibiting work in the UK,
artists can reach out to new audiences.
Kawakubo’s London exhibition To Tell a (hi)Story highlights the
constructed nature of historic narratives.
Media can be manipulated and contextualised to fit a political agenda. Kawakubo’s aesthetically beautiful photographs
of Japan’s nuclear reactors create a sense of unease and fascination. For Kawakubo, the fragility and contingency
of nuclear energy needs to be highlighted.
He wants to encourage people to think deeply about nuclear energy
production, about what it means globally. There is a sense of the sublime in Kawakubo’s
photography, the beauty of the images is disarming and allows new audiences to
engage with these political issues.
Art and
neutrality
Often,
there tends to be a kind of hierarchy in the art world; more established (generally
older) artists have higher profiles. Eiko
Honda says that when it comes to politically charged artworks, younger Japanese
artists have an advantage because they can ‘disguise their identity’ and
respond to social issues without having to be conscious of their place in art
history. Young artists have more freedom
and independence. But this hasn’t necessarily led to explicitly political artworks.
Yoi
Kawakubo explains that he doesn’t want to make his work ‘too political’ because
it makes practicing art more ‘dangerous’.
He argues that emotions are faster than thought and he prefers to
respond calmly and thoughtfully to political issues, to slow down and take
time to respond. When pressed on his
views on nuclear energy production he says, ‘I just want people to think about
it. If they ultimately decide that we
need nuclear power then that is respectable.’
However, this lengthy engagement with and openness to, democratic responsiveness,
contrasts with accelerating political and social systems that demand speed and
functionality. As such, this artistic
approach itself becomes a political stance; whether it intervenes with or runs
alongside politics, it still relates to and moulds political engagement.
‘Is there space for outrage?’ asks Professor
Alexander. Honda points out that in
Japan, the notion of the ‘public’ and of the ‘commons’ is very different from
the West. In the UK we understand
‘public’ as being ‘of the people’, but in Japan the idea of the ‘public’
pertains to the government, to state power.
She explains that in Japan, there is a greater emphasis on the idea of
harmony and this affects the need for, and the impact of, outrage.
For
art collectives such as Art Action UK,
the issue of neutrality is important.
The group has provided a platform for art activists such as Kaya Hanasaki
as well as more ‘neutral’ artists like Kawakubo. The purpose of the group is to provide a
space in which artists can express themselves however they wish, away from the
social and political climate that they normally work in. If the group were to create a unified
political message, it would reframe the featured artworks as illustrative of a
political goal. This functionalization
of artistic practices would close down the communicative potential of the
works.
And
yet to be neutral is to take neither one position nor the other. It is ‘between’ and indicates a centrality. In the context of political commentary, this
centrism is relative and often defined by the dominant political power. In many circumstances neutrality could be
understood as political conformity. To
perpetuate the possibility of democracy within an art collective, the group
should foreground ‘art-activist’ practices as well as ‘neutral’ art practices.
What can art do?
The
discussion highlighted the social, emotional and ‘spiritual’ significance of
art. These are often intangible things. To answer the question, and to decide ‘what
art can do’ is paradoxical; true ‘art’ emerges without function, it doesn’t
prescribe a specific response. Art exceeds immediate rationality. Nevertheless, it is powerful- it can keep
memories alive, bring communities together and transform perceptions of the
world. It can communicate beyond
cultural, linguistic and social divides.
It is democratic. What can art
do? Eiko Honda summarizes perfectly;
whatever art can do it’s ‘certainly not for the privileged few to decide’.
Biographies:
Yoi
Kawakubo: Kawakubo graduated from the University of
Tsukuba with a BA in Human Sciences.
After working in the finance industry in Tokyo for 3 years, he began to
create artworks. He has subsequently won
awards including the Tokyo Wonder Wall 2011.
He was shortlisted for the Sovereign Art Foundation Asia Award 2012 and
the Ohara Museum of Art Prize at VOCA 2015.
He is Art Action UK’s 2015 artist in
residency.
Professor David
Alexander: Alexander obtained a PhD
in Mediterranean Geomorphology from University College London (UCL) in 1977,
where he is now Professor of Risk and Disaster Reduction. He is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Disaster Reduction
Risk. Alexander has worked in
institutions internationally, including University of Florence and University
of South Pacific Fiji and has visited the Tohoku area several times since
3.11 to analyse the recovery programme.
Eiko Honda:
Honda is a curator and Fellow of the Overseas Study Programme for
Artists led by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs. Her recent projects include Noodles Against the Machine:
the Politics of Food and Artists’ Resistance in Contemporary Japan (2014),
Unlocking the Diary: The Archiving of
Nameless Memories (2014) and NOW & FUTURE:
JAPAN 2012. She is currently working on a project that explores contemporary
ecological theories, which will feature the works of Minakata Kumagusu.
Dr. Majella
Munro: Munroe is a writer and
researcher. After graduating from the
University of Essex with a PhD on the Japanese Surrealist movement, she has
completed a research monograph with Tate’s Asia-Pacific Research Centre entitled Close
To Nature? Japanese artists and the
environment, from Fukushima to Hiroshima. Recent publications include Communicating Vessels: The Surrealist Movement in Japan, 1923-70 and Understanding Shunga: A guide to Japanese Erotic Art.
Kaori Homma: Homma graduated from the
Tokyo University of Art and Design with a BA in Fine Art, and from Chelsea
School of Art, London with an MA in Fine Art.
She is Associate Lecturer of Fine Art at Central Saint Martins and
co-founder of the organization Art Action UK.
Homma is currently exhibiting work in the Sailing Stones exhibition USA and has had solo exhibitions in
Paris, Budapest, Japan, UK and USA.
References:
Brown
Marc, 2014, ‘Fukushima
vegetable soup on menu at Frieze London art fair’, The Guardian, 25/0/14,
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/sep/25/fukushima-vegetable-soup-frieze-london-art-fair
Munro
Majella, 2014, ‘Close To Nature?
Japanese artists and the environment, from Fukushima to Hiroshima’,
9/12/ 14, http://majellamunro.com/tate-talk/
Ozawa
Tsuyoshi, 2001, ‘Vegetable Weapon’, http://www.ozawatsuyoshi.net/selected-works/vegetable-weapon/
Sudo
Yoko,
‘Techno-Udon Challenges Japan’s Dance Restrictions’, 9/7/14, Japan Real Time
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2014/07/09/techno-udon-challenges-japans-dance-restrictions/
Takamine Tadasu,
'Japan Syndrome –
Utrecht
Version', E-flux Journal, http://www.e-flux.com/announcements/tadasu-takamine-japan-syndrome-–-utrecht-version/
The Fukushima Project, ‘The Mystery of The Pointing Man at Fukushima Daiichi Solved,’ 9/9/11: http://www.fukuleaks.org/web/?p=2978
The Maruki Gallery, http://www.aya.or.jp/~marukimsn/english/indexE.htm
[i] the fifteenth panel is displayed at the
Nagasaki International Cultural Hall
[ii] Tokyo
Electric Power Company
[iii] for more information see ‘The
Mystery of The Pointing Man at Fukushima Daiichi Solved,’ in The Fukushima Project: http://www.fukuleaks.org/web/?p=2978
