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42°03'28.9"N̶͉̗͚̍̀͗̀͝͝ 138°̵̘͗͋͂͛̅͒̌ͅ12'25.0"Ë̴̠̣͚̥̙̣͙́̽͋̑̈̎̌͊
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42°03'28.9"N 138°12'25.0"E, installation view at Ground Zero, Co-Program, Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto, JP, 2023
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Nov 2023
Multimedia Installation, dimensions variable
Icicle, locally sourced water, field recordings at Fukushima nuclear disaster site, Raspberry Pi, temperature and humidity sensor, 3.5-inch liquid crystal display, hydrophone, condenser microphone, speakers, tin, zinc, antimony, sealed bags, single-channel video (looped), lab scissor stand, stainless steel sterile stray
Installation Documentation Photography by the artist, Yukasa Narisada and Takuya Matsumi
The sonic sculptural installation work 𝟰𝟮°𝟬𝟯'𝟮𝟴.𝟵"𝗡 𝟭𝟯𝟴°𝟭𝟮'𝟮𝟱.𝟬"𝗘 and Torque (happening and performance piece shown as part of the installation) exhibited at Kyoto Art Centre in Nov-Dec 2023 is centred on geotrauma, nuclear culture and the implications of current ongoing conflicts have on environmental resources, energy supply, and nature via the temporal latencies of war and nuclear catastrophes through the lens of hydropolitics, abjection, hyperobjects, and sonic investigation.
𝟰𝟮°𝟬𝟯'𝟮𝟴.𝟵"𝗡 𝟭𝟯𝟴°𝟭𝟮'𝟮𝟱.𝟬"𝗘 is a site specific sonic sculptural installation taking form at the nexus between two adjacent architectural spaces. Involving the transformation of the material cycle of water, its instrumentation and ‘weaponisation’, the work is developed from the ongoing research on artefacts and their residual effects as hyperobjects, cryopreservation, freezing as an archival and empirical method through examining the incidents involving water at Fukushima Daiichi and other locations, and their effects echoed in their temporal latencies.
The work in the exhibition focuses on the historical and present role of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the 1986 disaster and its current role in the Russian-Ukraine war. While the Soviet Union built the Chernobyl plant when it controlled Ukraine, it has shown via historical archival research that many sources viewed the disaster in 1986 as a contributing factor to the fall of the USSR a few years later. During the current conflict, Russian troops occupied the plant as leverage as part of their invasion of Ukraine from 24 February to 31 March 2022. This led to an increase of detected radiation levels and a risk of further radiation leaks.
Through exhibited artworks, archival research, and panel talks with guest speakers and curators including Lucia Pietroiusti, Dr. Susan Schuppli, Taro Igarashi and Haruka Iharada, the Chernobyl incident and its current status as a decommissioned plant were brought into discussion on the intertwining effects of war and nuclear culture, and in transtemporal parallel with the Fukushima nuclear power plant -- where a meltdown accident occurred more than a decade ago -- on which we conducted field research as part of the residency and exhibition programme.
Reflecting upon how the events on drastically different scales are spatiotemporally connected through the medium of water and the technological process of cryofreezing, the installation is triggered by the presence of people navigating the liminal corridor space between the two galleries, alternating between field recordings at the Fukushima nuclear disaster site, freezing, and the real-time generated sound from temperature transducers attached to the ice sculptural parts produced from the transformation cycle of water, coalescing in an open-ended sonic assemblage.
Performative processes of cryofreezing are referenced in the manifestation and manufacturing of tools and ‘weapons’ made of ice through the medium of water, revealing and examining its registers of harm and synergy inscribed upon bodies, while spotlighting water as the universal solvent on both material and symbolic levels. Traversing the interspace between life and death, biotechnological processes, cryopolitics, and abjection, the installation explores the process to rebuild from the ground zero of catastrophe, manifesting a liminal memorial site, a sonic void outside human time.
More info on the work and research is on the KAC website.
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133° 79.515 N
012° 90.797 E
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