1×1 Project
A Commission for ‘Suspension of Disbelief’
Washington DC Arts & Humanities Commission
Centenial Celebration of the Cherry Blossom Festival.
Suspension of Disbelief was curated by Steve Rowell as part of the larger public arts festival 5×5
“Tsunamis know no national borders, any more than oceans know their names, or radiation can be contained from the flow of water, filtered from the rain, cleaned from the sea or plied from our tears. How can people forget, how can culture respond or science calculate and society mitigate for the events of one year ago, a tragedy that will unfold through time and space beyond the confines of Japan’s national borders to affect and touch us all.”
The project formed part of “Suspension of Disbelief”, also featured work by KUNSTrePUBLIK (Germany), Lize Mogel (USA), Office of Experiments (UK), Charles Stankievech (Canada) and Deborah Stratman & Steve Badgett (USA)
The historic background to this project was the donation of 1000 Cherry Trees as a gift to the USA in 1912. The Centenary of this gift also marked on year since the devastating Tsunami and resulting Fukushima disaster, that haunted both the physical and real.
Office of Experiments at Transformer Gallery, P District, Washington DC.
Transformer Gallery acted as the central hub for this project. Water, brought from the area of devastation following the Tsunami was carried into the USA in small flask and then decanted into 1000 small vials that were arranged in a specially constructed crate, displayed in the gallery window.
The vials containing what became termed ‘tears’, acted as a catalyst for dialogue with visitors to the gallery who were given further information on the disaster, and were allowed to take away one vial. They were asked to place the water onto a Cherry Tree or another site of personal memorial, and could, if they liked, email an image which would be added to the project website.
Further information, visual data / maps about the flow of radioactive water, and debris from the Fukushima disaster, including debris drifting across the Pacific and into the Garbage patch of plastics, as well as washing up on the shores of the West Coast of the USA at that time, were put on display.
We also worked with a local Public School, taking a class to the monumental core in Washington DC where the 1000 Cherry Trees are located. Each pupil could have their photographs taken in the act of watering a Cherry Tree during the Centennial celebrations.
Most moving of all, however, is Office of Experiment’s 1×1 comprised of 1,000 small vials of “tears,” water collected in Japan after the earthquake. Visitors are encouraged to pour the water on a cherry tree bringing about a symbolic rebirth. This act also reflects what Tokyo’s mayor hoped to do a century ago: promote an international exchange between the two continents encouraging new life and friendships to blossom. As evidenced this weekend, the vibrant 5×5 project is the start of a new era of tradition.
Interview Magazine, April 2012.
Experimental Media
The website of the 1×1 project documented a further spatio-temporal intervention. Working with Steve Rowell, we established the locations of a number of sites in Washington DC linked to Fukushima Disaster that followed the Tsunami, including; Japanese Cultural Center, Japanese Memorial gardens (WWII), Nuclear Safety Department and Nuclear Energy lobbying groups, Global Media and Disaster Management Centers. Photographs were taken at sites with an unfurled image of a small ship washed ashore by the tidal wave in Otsuchi. The image, acquired from Reuters, had been circulated widely across global media networks that reported on the devastation. Documentation of the unfurled image taken at these sites were posted along with further information on the image and its location on the project website.
Website design by Lemon.
