2019 - 2020
AM I AM A MUTANT SERIES
Unique c-print photogram (marquee plates, sunlight, artist's breath), PVC backing, magnet
Am I Am a Mutant : 54 x 88 in. (80 of 6.75 x 8.75 in. prints)
The Never Ending Light Show : 21 x 97 in. (33 of 6.75 x 8.75 in. prints)
Can I : 27 x 88 in. (40 of 6.75 x 8.75 in. prints)
2 minutes : 41 x 88 in. (58 of 6.75 x 8.75 in. prints)
Am I Am a Mutant is an immersive installation consisting of over 200 sun-fused photograms made only from light sensitive paper, marquee letter plates, and sunlight. These unique hybrids of text and imagery became an inescapable monument that symbolizes the inherited generational trauma and my own experience of nuclear tensions of today. The use of marquee letter plates, which are typically deployed to display and inform people of upcoming movies and plays, is not accidental. The divide between reality and fiction is often wide but thin at the same time, especially when it comes to monuments and the past. My superhero filled childhood is similar to many, my awakening to the horror of such things is more unique, and many still only imagine the spectacle they have seen the silver screen, not to the elongated tragedy that stretches such events over a long period of time. For these viewers, nuclear weapons and power only exist in the form of a brief mushroom, a flash, and a powerful period of fire and destruction. Then, they leave the theater, their eyes leave the screen. The damage only exists for how long they can witness the explosion and not the effects it has on the survivors’ genes and the invisible radiation seeping into the very earth.
Most of the works are “written” vertically, echoing the layout of the Japanese language and demanding more time to read and decipher them for those unaccustomed to the structure.
2019 - 2020
AM I AM A MUTANT SERIES
Unique c-print photogram (marquee plates, sunlight, artist's breath), PVC backing, magnet
Am I Am a Mutant : 54 x 88 in. (80 of 6.75 x 8.75 in. prints)
The Never Ending Light Show : 21 x 97 in. (33 of 6.75 x 8.75 in. prints)
Can I : 27 x 88 in. (40 of 6.75 x 8.75 in. prints)
2 minutes : 41 x 88 in. (58 of 6.75 x 8.75 in. prints)
Am I Am a Mutant is an immersive installation consisting of over 200 sun-fused photograms made only from light sensitive paper, marquee letter plates, and sunlight. These unique hybrids of text and imagery became an inescapable monument that symbolizes the inherited generational trauma and my own experience of nuclear tensions of today. The use of marquee letter plates, which are typically deployed to display and inform people of upcoming movies and plays, is not accidental. The divide between reality and fiction is often wide but thin at the same time, especially when it comes to monuments and the past. My superhero filled childhood is similar to many, my awakening to the horror of such things is more unique, and many still only imagine the spectacle they have seen the silver screen, not to the elongated tragedy that stretches such events over a long period of time. For these viewers, nuclear weapons and power only exist in the form of a brief mushroom, a flash, and a powerful period of fire and destruction. Then, they leave the theater, their eyes leave the screen. The damage only exists for how long they can witness the explosion and not the effects it has on the survivors’ genes and the invisible radiation seeping into the very earth.
Most of the works are “written” vertically, echoing the layout of the Japanese language and demanding more time to read and decipher them for those unaccustomed to the structure.
© 2023 by Kei Ito.
Created on Editor X.
Sungazing
2015 - Ongoing
108 of 8”x10” prints, Scroll: 12” x 150’ to 220’ depending on the edition
On August 6th 1945, at 8:15 AM, my grandfather witnessed a great tragedy that destroyed nearly everything in Hiroshima. He survived the bombing, yet he lost many of his family members from the explosion and radiation poisoning. As an activist and author, my grandfather fought against the use of nuclear weaponry throughout his life, until he too passed away from cancer when I was ten years old. I remember him saying that day in Hiroshima was like hundreds of suns lighting up the sky.
In order to express the connection between the sun and my family history, I have created 108 letter size prints and a 200 foot long scroll, made by exposing Type-C photographic paper to sunlight. The pattern on the prints/scroll corresponds to my breath. In a darkened room, I pulled the paper in front of a small aperture to expose it to the sun while inhaling, and paused when exhaling. I repeated this action until I breathed 108 times. 108 is a number with ritual significance in Japanese Buddhism; to mark the Japanese New Year, bells toll 108 times, ridding us of our evil passions and desires, and purifying our souls.
If the black parts of the print remind you of a shadow, it is the shadow of my breath, which is itself a registration of my life, a life I share with and owe to my grandfather. The mark of the atomic blast upon his life and upon his breath was passed on to me, and you can see it as the shadow of this print.