Hardback | |
June 1, 2021 | |
9780819580269 | |
English | |
288 | |
230 color photos, 1 map | |
11.25 Inches (US) | |
8.75 Inches (US) | |
$35.00 USD, £25.95 GBP | |
v2.1 Reference | |
A Body in Fukushima
By Eiko Otake and William Johnston
A photographic account of an extended solo performance in irradiated Fukushima between 2014 and 2019
On March 11, 2011 one of the most powerful earthquakes in recorded history devastated Japan, triggering a massive tsunami and nuclear meltdowns at three reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex in a triple disaster known as 3.11. On five separate journeys, Japanese-born performer and dancer Eiko Otake and historian and photographer William Johnston visited multiple locations across Fukushima, creating 200 transformative color photographs that document the irradiated landscape, accentuated by Eiko's poses depicting both the sorrow and dignity of the land. The book also includes essays and commentary reflecting on art, disaster, and grief.
"By placing my body in these places, I thought of the generations of people who used to live there. Now desolate, only time and wind continue to move." —Eiko Otake
"This book is of people who had lived in Fukushima and had to leave, and of people who had died there before the disaster. This book is of Fukushima, of a dancer, of a performance, of a gaze. A gaze of a dancer, of time, and of a photographer. And this book is of you, your gaze. When you take time to look at and look into each photograph, we hope it becomes a performance for you and with you, of Fukushima. By witnessing events and places, we actually change them and ourselves in ways that may not always be apparent but are important. Through photographing Eiko in these places in Fukushima, we are witnessing not only her and the places themselves, but the people whose lives crossed with those places." —William Johnston
On March 11, 2011 one of the most powerful earthquakes in recorded history devastated Japan, triggering a massive tsunami and nuclear meltdowns at three reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex in a triple disaster known as 3.11. On five separate journeys, Japanese-born performer and dancer Eiko Otake and historian and photographer William Johnston visited multiple locations across Fukushima, creating 200 transformative color photographs that document the irradiated landscape, accentuated by Eiko's poses depicting both the sorrow and dignity of the land. The book also includes essays and commentary reflecting on art, disaster, and grief.
"By placing my body in these places, I thought of the generations of people who used to live there. Now desolate, only time and wind continue to move." —Eiko Otake
"This book is of people who had lived in Fukushima and had to leave, and of people who had died there before the disaster. This book is of Fukushima, of a dancer, of a performance, of a gaze. A gaze of a dancer, of time, and of a photographer. And this book is of you, your gaze. When you take time to look at and look into each photograph, we hope it becomes a performance for you and with you, of Fukushima. By witnessing events and places, we actually change them and ourselves in ways that may not always be apparent but are important. Through photographing Eiko in these places in Fukushima, we are witnessing not only her and the places themselves, but the people whose lives crossed with those places." —William Johnston
About the Authors
Born and raised in Japan and now a longtime New Yorker, EIKO OTAKE is a movement-based interdisciplinary artist. WILLIAM JOHNSTON grew up in Wyoming where he developed an interest in Japanese culture and Zen Buddhism; he is a photographer and historian at Wesleyan University.
Endorsements
"What would bring someone to travel thousands of miles to the still toxic site of a monumental disaster in order to perform in the evacuated silence for a camera? What are the ethical dimensions of such an act? What place does beauty have in the wake of massive trauma? Who has the right to speak, to dance, to situate themselves in places from which others were forcibly extracted? This book is a record of two significant, internationally-oriented artists as they struggle with such questions and resolve that, as Akira Kurosawa once said, "To be an artist means never to look away."—Forrest Gander
Wesleyan University Press | |
|
|
|
|
Hardback | |
June 1, 2021 | |
9780819580269 | |
English | |
288 | |
230 color photos, 1 map | |
11.25 Inches (US) | |
8.75 Inches (US) | |
$35.00 USD, £25.95 GBP | |
v2.1 Reference | |
Other Titles in PERFORMING ARTS / Dance / Regional & Ethnic
Baring Unbearable Sensualities
Rosemarie A. Roberts
Oct 2021
- Wesleyan University Press
$95.00 USD
- Hardback
$24.95 USD
- Paperback / softback
Moving Bodies, Navigating Conflict
Ahalya Satkunaratnam
Apr 2020
- Wesleyan University Press
$75.00 USD
- Hardback
$22.95 USD
- Paperback / softback
$17.99 USD
- Electronic book text
Using the Sky
Deborah Hay
Dec 2019
- Wesleyan University Press
$22.95 USD
- Paperback / softback
$18.99 USD
- Electronic book text
Other Titles in Photographs: portraits
Faces of Civil War Nurses
Ronald S. Coddington
Oct 2020
- Johns Hopkins University Press
$32.95 USD
- Hardback
$32.95 USD
- Electronic book text
Faces of the Civil War Navies
Ronald S. Coddington - with a foreword by Craig L. Symonds
Nov 2016
- Johns Hopkins University Press
$32.95 USD
- Hardback
$32.95 USD
- Electronic book text
African American Faces of the Civil War
Ronald S. Coddington - with a foreword by J. Matthew Gallman
Oct 2012
- Johns Hopkins University Press
$32.95 USD
- Hardback
$32.95 USD
- Electronic book text