Deleting Them with the Sky

2017

Video

Using the blue sky to erase the "sadness" and "suffering" of people living in the tsunami-affected areas.

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空で消していく

2017

映像

被災地に残された「悲しみ」や「苦しみ」を、青空で消していく。

Deleting them with the Sky in Ishinomaki is an installation and video work that centers around the expression of individual emotions that were suppressed following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake disaster through inquiries into <deleting> and <the deleted>. The work was created in Ishinomaki city, Miyagi prefecture; which suffered devastation due to the tsunami and earthquake. The final work was exhibited in a home that had been damaged by the waves.

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The video shows people walking in front of objects they wish to delete with mirrors reflecting the sky in their hands. Using panorama photography, the objects they wish to eliminate are blended with the blue sky. Simultaneously, the audience hear the story of why they wish to delete these things. In a place where the earthquake destroyed numerous things, this work try to reverse the relationship between individuals and event, through the active attempt to eliminate things. In the process, the hidden personal losses during restoration were re-explored and revealed.

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In the affected areas where around 20,000 lives were lost, there is a situation in which even individuals directly affected by the earthquake are very cautious of exposing personal emotions about the disaster. Citizens in the affected areas are expected to unite as a “community”, and are extremely sensitive about whether or not expressing their personal thoughts will hurt someone else. In this piece, rather than directly addressing the earthquake, instead they ask citizens the question: “What would you like to eliminate?”. Through this process, it makes individual’s personal complex emotions visible in a roundabout way, and they physically understand through a creation of a “landscape where what they want to erase does not exist any more”.

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A woman who happened to be outside the affected areas on the day of the earthquake―and who feels excluded from the rest of the community due to this lack of a shared experience―said that she wants to delete herself. A man who decided that he will no longer lie to himself after the earthquake and began crossdressing, wants to get rid of the wrinkles on his face. Individual memories of the earthquake and emotions surrounding the incident are shared, and the loss that they long for is transformed into a beautiful blue sky.

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《消されること》と《消すこと》から、大震災後の抑圧されている個人的感情を浮かび上がらせることを主題とした、インスタレーションを含む映像作品です。東日本大震災時の大津波により甚大な被害が発生した宮城県石巻市で制作され、実際に津波で破壊された民家で展示されました。

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映像では、大きな鏡で空を反射させながら消したいものの前を横切る人々の姿と、それをパノラマ撮影することで、彼らの望む消したいものが青空へと変わっていく風景が映し出されます。同時に、彼らがなぜそれを消したいのか? というエピソードが語られていきます。震災により、多くのものが消されてしまった場所で、あえて能動的に消すことを試みることで関係性を反転させ、復興の過程で見え辛くなった個人的な喪失について掘り下げていきます。

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2万人の死者をだした被災地では、たとえ被災者であっても、うかつに震災に関する個人的な感情を発露できないという状況が起きていました。「共同体」として力をあわせることが求められ、自分の個人的発言が他者を傷つけてしまうのではないかと、人々は敏感になっていたのです。本作では、そうした語りにくい個人的な感情を、震災を直接語るのではなく「今、消してしまいたいものは何か？」と問いかけることで間接的に浮かび上がらせ、実際に体を使って「消したいものがなくなっている風景」を作ることを試みます。

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大震災の日に偶然被災地から離れていた女性は、震災体験を共有できないことに疎外感を感じ、自分を消したいと語りました。震災以降、自分に素直に生きようと決めて女装に目覚めたという男性は、顔のシワを消したいと語りました。各々の震災の記憶と個人的な感情が語られていきながら、彼らの望む喪失は美しい青空へと変換されていきます。