project 2011−2012: 200km from Fukushima
Apparently peace and safe country, Japan exposed intrinsic danger of nuclear power stations when the earthquake and tsunami came on March 11. However, even just after the accident, the standoffish attitude is prevailing overseas, just like the former optimism in Japan. This project is aiming to convey the threat of nuclear power, and consider about it together with us Japanese using visual ways which everyone can enjoy.
“200km from Fukushima” is about visualizing the anxiety of invisible radiation that people feel in my hometown, Tokyo, which is 200km away from Fukushima. It uses 100 square shaped paintings as 100 tiles, and while area around Tokyo is in beautiful light colors, a 20km radius around the nuclear plant is black and has dents caused by the rain which contains radiation. This work is also for people who live 2000km or more apart from Fukushima in order to let them know the risk.
Working in Europe, I feel that even though local people know the incident in Fukushima, they just regard it as affairs of a distant country after all. Although, Japan is not the only country that needs to change.
Due to the leak of radiation, many countries conducted stress tests to evaluate the safeness of their nuclear power plants. Then, some countries like Germany took the result seriously, shared it to the public, and finally decided the decommission of their nuclear power plants. Nevertheless, there are still a lot of countries for which the danger is not even disclosed.
Japan is also the only country that has experienced atomic bombing, and we Japaneses know how nuclear is fearful; therefore, it is necessary to communicate about it to foreign countries.
Presently, the neighboring country, China, is intending to build many nuclear plants. Also, the indifference toward nuclear power problems in other countries it is not only a problem beyond the sea. We hope many of you would approve this project, and we will deeply appreciate your contribution.
If you're willing to support us, please send me a message with your name, your e-mail address, the amount of the donation you would like to make and the method of payment (we only accept bank transfers from Japan, money orders and Paypal). This project is being conducted with pleasure by members who love art. I will report its progress, difficulties and enjoyments on the following Facebook page, so please have a look at it. We will also organize some parties related to the project. Please become a member and participate with us.
16 December 2011
Hitomi Kammai
Assistant
Hiromi Hamatake
Naomi Horie
Natsumi Ikeda
Rie Sakamoto
Shokola
Shoko Yamaguchi
Takahisa Yano