2015
THIRST
Media: video, projection, music ensemble (composed by Alexa Rinn, PhD)
Duration: 7 minutes 18 seconds
Performed at the Walters Art Museum
This work is based on the story my grandfather once told me. If the death was the first thing the A-bomb gave to the people in Hiroshima, burnt flesh and unbearable thirst was the next. Many survivors jumped into a river to ease their deadly thirst. However, many of their throats were burnt that they drown due to being unable to swallow the water. By the next morning, the river was filled with bodies staring at the sky and the sun.
"The hottest day in Hiroshima, 1945.
Exposed beneath the Suns, they eagerly searched for water,
to quench a thirst they could never swallow.
One by one, stepping into the river,
submerged beneath a blazing sky.
One by one, floating, staring into the Sun."
2015
THIRST
Media: video, projection, music ensemble (composed by Alexa Rinn, PhD)
Duration: 7 minutes 18 seconds
Performed at the Walters Art Museum
This work is based on the story my grandfather once told me. If the death was the first thing the A-bomb gave to the people in Hiroshima, burnt flesh and unbearable thirst was the next. Many survivors jumped into a river to ease their deadly thirst. However, many of their throats were burnt that they drown due to being unable to swallow the water. By the next morning, the river was filled with bodies staring at the sky and the sun.
"The hottest day in Hiroshima, 1945.
Exposed beneath the Suns, they eagerly searched for water,
to quench a thirst they could never swallow.
One by one, stepping into the river,
submerged beneath a blazing sky.
One by one, floating, staring into the Sun."
© 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.