PHOTOGRAPH

(The red square)

2014
paper size : 63 x 79 cm
image size : 59 x 75 cm

archival pigment print, FA Hahnemühle Baryta 325,
mounted, oak frame without glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(Black rain)

The ‘black rain’ reached ground level as sticky, dark, dangerously radioactive water. It not only stained skin, clothing, and buildings, but also was ingested through breathing and consumption of contaminated food or water, causing radiation poisoning.

2014
paper size : 147 x 117 cm
image size : 140 x 110 cm

archival pigment print, FA Hahnemühle Baryta 325, acrylic paint,
mounted, oak frame without glass.

unique
signed, dated and numbered verso

(Yellow : Strontium 90, red : plutonium 239, purple : caesium 137)

Inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams – Mount Fuji in red.

A large nuclear power plant near Mount Fuji has begun to melt down; its six reactors explode one by one. The breaches fill the sky with hellish red fumes. After an unspecified amount of time, two men, a woman, and her two small children are seen alone, left behind on land in broad daylight. The older man explains to the younger man that the rest have drowned themselves in the ocean. He then says that the many different colours of the clouds billowing across the post-apocalyptic landscape signify different radioactive isotopes; according to him, red signifies plutonium-239, a tenth of a microgram of which is enough to cause cancer. He elaborates on how other released isotopes cause leukaemia (strontium-90) and birth defects (cesium-137) before wondering at the foolish futility of colour-coding radioactive gases of such lethality.

2014
paper size : 146 x 183,5 cm
image size : 137,5 x 175 cm

archival pigment print, FA Hahnemühle Baryta 325,
mounted, oak frame without glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(Yellow : Strontium 90, red : plutonium 239, purple : caesium 137)
(details)

Inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams – Mount Fuji in red.

A large nuclear power plant near Mount Fuji has begun to melt down; its six reactors explode one by one. The breaches fill the sky with hellish red fumes. After an unspecified amount of time, two men, a woman, and her two small children are seen alone, left behind on land in broad daylight. The older man explains to the younger man that the rest have drowned themselves in the ocean. He then says that the many different colours of the clouds billowing across the post-apocalyptic landscape signify different radioactive isotopes; according to him, red signifies plutonium-239, a tenth of a microgram of which is enough to cause cancer. He elaborates on how other released isotopes cause leukaemia (strontium-90) and birth defects (cesium-137) before wondering at the foolish futility of colour-coding radioactive gases of such lethality.

2014
paper size : 146 x 183,5 cm
image size : 137,5 x 175 cm

archival pigment print, FA Hahnemühle Baryta 325,
mounted, oak frame without glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

In May 1942, to preserve Himeji Castle, its dungeon was camouflaged. In December 1943, its towers and walls followed.

2013
paper size : 63 x 79 cm
image size : 59 x 75 cm

archival pigment print, FA Hahnemühle Baryta 325,
mounted, oak frame without glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

special edition of 20
produced for the C/O Berlin, 30x37,5cm, archival pigment print.
signed, dated and numbered verso

(Her beautiful field of flowers)

In 2010 I produced the picture Un magnifique champ de fleurs (A Beautiful Field of Flowers) for the Omoide Poroporo series. When I took this picture, for me it was just a beautiful field of flowers. A few months later, I spoke with my grandparents one night about their experiences during WWII. One of my grandfather’s memories was that one of his older sisters fell ill. And just before she died, the last sentence she said to their mother was: I saw a beautiful field of flowers. So I decided to re-use my image Un magnifique champ de fleurs and to apply a red filter to my picture, creating a new piece Son magnifique champ de fleurs (Her Beautiful Field of Flowers), which could be her beautiful field of flowers as my aunt saw it before she died.

2013
paper size : 113 x 142 cm
image size : 106 x 135 cm

archival pigment print, FA Hahnemühle Baryta 325,
mounted, oak frame without glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

The sun rises just above the horizon and the sun’s rays reflect off the water of Lake Geneva.

2013
paper size : 146 x 183,5 cm
image size : 137,5 x 175 cm

archival pigment print, FA Hahnemühle Baryta 325,
mounted, oak frame without glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

2013
paper size : 63 x 79 cm
image size : 59 x 75 cm

archival pigment print, FA Hahnemühle Baryta 325,
silkscreen, mounted, oak frame without glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(Divine wind = kamikaze in Japanese)

The Japanese word kamikaze is usually translated as ‘divine wind’ (kami is the word for ‘God’, ‘spirit’, or ‘divinity’, and kaze for ‘wind’). The word has been used since August 1281 to refer to the major typhoons that dispersed the Mongol fleets that invaded Japan under Kublai Khan in 1274 and 1281, thus saving Japan from foreign conquests.

2013
paper size : 113 x 142 cm
image size : 106 x 135 cm

archival pigment print, FA Hahnemühle Baryta 325,
mounted, oak frame without glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

My second experimentation with the idea of sound was with the images (BAOUMMM and Pluie noire). I wanted to see how the onomatopoeia could add something to help understand the picture better or to feel/describe a sensation or a situation.
2013
paper size : 146 x 183,5 cm
image size : 137,5 x 175 cm

archival pigment print, FA Hahnemühle Baryta 325, acrylic paint,
mounted, oak frame without glass.

unique
signed, dated and numbered verso

(B-29 raid of 18 June 1945 on Kobe)

On 18 June 1945, 25 B-29 bombers laid naval mines in waters near Kobe.

2013
paper size : 78 x 98 cm
image size : 72,5 x 92,5 cm

archival pigment print, FA Hahnemühle Baryta 325,
mounted, oak frame without glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(The bunker)

A few weeks after the explosion of the atomic bomb, scientists saw that the flash from the bomb had discoloured the walls that were still standing. The bomb had left marks corresponding to projections of objects, bodies and street furniture like a photographic projection. The heat from heat radiation made visible shadows on the ground. The shadows could be a man who was standing at the time of the tragedy and had somehow ‘protected’ the wall from the bomb. It was the same with a ladder, a valve or pylons of a bridge.

2012
paper size : 63 x 79 cm
image size : 59 x 75 cm

archival pigment print, FA Hahnemühle Baryta 325,
mounted, oak frame without glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(Bombings)

My grandparents lived in Kobe during WWII. On 16/17 March 1945, 331 American B-29 bombers launched a firebomb attack against the city of Kobe. The city would be bombed again in later months.

2012
paper size : 146 x 183,5 cm
image size : 137,5 x 175 cm

archival pigment print, FA Hahnemühle Baryta 325,
mounted, oak frame without glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

Mishiko was the youngest sister of my grandfather. She fell ill during the war, and doctors diagnosed poor hydration. In Japan, watermelon is a very popular fruit and holds a lot of water. So her parents gave it to her regularly. But the diagnosis was wrong; it was a salt deficiency and she died shortly afterwards.

2012
paper size : 146 x 183,5 cm
image size : 137,5 x 175 cm

archival pigment print, FA Hahnemühle Baryta 325,
mounted, oak frame without glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(The grave of the fireflies)

I was deeply inspired by the movie Grave of the Fireflies, a Japanese animation film written and directed by Isao Takahata and animated by Studio Ghibli. It is based on the 1967 semi-autobiographical novel Grave of the Fireflies by Akiyuki Nosaka. This film reminds me very much of what my grandparents lived through during the war. They lived in the same city – Kobe – as the protagonists and hence experienced the events described in the movie.

2012
paper size : 78 x 98 cm
image size : 72,5 x 92,5 cm

archival pigment print, FA Hahnemühle Baryta 325,
mounted, oak frame without glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(For Sadako)

Sadako was two years old and two kilometres away from the atomic bomb when it was dropped on Hiroshima. She was healthy growing up, but ten years after the bombing she was suddenly hospitalised. The diagnosis was leukaemia. During Sadako’s stay in the hospital, her best friend, Chizuko, came to visit her. Chizuko brought some origami (folding paper) and told Sadako of a legend. She explained that the crane, a sacred bird in Japan, lives for a hundred years, and if a sick person folds 1,000 paper cranes, then that person would soon get well. After hearing the legend, Sadako decided to fold 1,000 cranes. A popular version of the story is that Sasaki fell short of her goal of folding 1,000 cranes, having folded only 644 before her death and that her friends completed the 1,000 and buried them all with her.

2012
paper size : 63 x 79 cm
image size : 59 x 75 cm

archival pigment print, FA Hahnemühle Baryta 325,
mounted, oak frame without glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

2012
paper size : 113 x 142 cm
image size : 106 x 135 cm

archival pigment print, FA Hahnemühle Baryta 325,
mounted, oak frame without glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(Family portrait)

2010
40 x 50 cm

archival pigment print, Canson Platine Fibre Rag 315,
mounted, black wood frame.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(Specimens)

The title is a reference to a novel called The Ring Finger by Yoko Ogawa.

2010
40 x 30 cm

archival pigment print, Canson Platine Fibre Rag 315,
mounted, black wood frame with glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(The Pissevache)

2010
40 x 30 cm

archival pigment print, Canson Platine Fibre Rag 315,
mounted, black wood frame with glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(The departure)

This image was taken right after my grandfather decided to return to Kobe to spend the rest of his life there.

2010
30 x 40 cm

archival pigment print, Canson Platine Fibre Rag 315,
mounted, black wood frame with glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(A rain shower)

2010
21 x 30 cm

archival pigment print, Canson Platine Fibre Rag 315,
mounted, black wood frame with glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(Samurai)

2010
21 x 30 cm

archival pigment print, Canson Platine Fibre Rag 315,
mounted, black wood frame with glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

special edition of 25 + 2 artist’s proofs
for the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA),
16x20 inches, chromogenic print.

(Kobe)

My grandparents lived in Kobe during the WWII. The Bombing of the city on March 16 and 17, 1945 was part of the strategic bombing campaign waged by the USA against military and civilian targets and population centers during the Japan home islands campaign in the closing stages of WWII. The city would be bombed again in later months.

2010
40 x 50 cm

archival pigment print, Canson Platine Fibre Rag 315,
mounted, black wood frame with glass.

edition of 3 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

2009
80 x 100 cm

digital C-print, mounted

edition of 7 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(Self-portrait as an octopus)

2009
64 x 80 cm

digital C-print, mounted

edition of 7 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(The flight of chicks)

2009
80 x 64 cm

digital C-print, mounted

edition of 7 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

special edition of 25 + 2 artist’s proofs
for the Aperture Foundation New-York,
60x48cm, digital C-print.

My grandmother was 14 years old when she was requisitioned by the Japanese army to work in a fighter plane factory.

2009
64 x 80 cm

digital C-print, mounted

edition of 7 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(The shadow of Godzilla)

2009
48 x 60 cm

digital C-print, mounted

edition of 7 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(The Dome)

‘Le Dôme’ is a representation of the Genbaku Dome in Hiroshima, originally the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. It was the only structure left standing near the first atomic bomb’s hypocentre.

‘A winter landscape where snow looks like ashes.’

2009
116 x 145 cm

digital C-print, mounted

edition of 7 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(Fish)

2009
64 x 80 cm

digital C-print, mounted

edition of 7 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

2009
64 x 80 cm

digital C-print, mounted

edition of 7 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

2009
64 x 80 cm

digital C-print, mounted

edition of 7 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(The fisherman’s wife)

Reference to The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife by Katsushika Hokusai.

2009
100 x 80 cm

digital C-print, mounted

edition of 7 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso

(A blue landscape)

2009
116 x 145 cm

digital C-print, mounted

edition of 7 + 2 artist’s proofs
signed, dated and numbered verso