Transforming Puddle A to Puddle B

2012 Two Channel Video Installation (11’02min each)

This work transforms a puddle on the street in Shinjuku to Narahamachi, which once was a designated restricted area inside the 20km radius of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake. All residents of Narahamachi were once enforced to evacuate, but even after the alert being removed after the Summer 2012, few have returned due to radiation fears combined with devastated infrastructures, leaving the streets empty, gathering grass and weeds. Upon questioning how he might confront the reality of such a location not so far from Tokyo, Niwa, while aware that despite any attempt to engage with the place he would be relegated as an outsider, felt the only thing he could do was to transform a puddle. Even though the alert had been removed from the area, the historical fact of this status would never vanish, and would be something that the community would be frequently reminded of while finding its own way towards regeneration. In the presentation of the work a cube-like structure is created from waste cardboard used for carriage, within which a two channel video installation is set. The entrance of the installation is covered, making just a small slit above the floor, which is structured so that the observer must crouch down on the floor just like the artist does, in order to see the work.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.