On August 15th (Saturday), a talk event was held at the Peace Town Museum (Kokurakita Ward, Kitakyushu City) to commemorate the permanent exhibition of "Forty Thousand Whitebait," a painting by artist Ikenana (Graduate School of Fine Arts name), who is currently enrolled in the Graduate School of Art at our university.
The Peace Town Museum (4-10 Jonai, Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu City) is located on the former site of the Kokura Army Arsenal and displays various materials that convey the tragedy of war and the preciousness of peace.
This artwork, created by an artist from Kitakyushu City, uniquely depicts the lives of 40,000 people who once worked at the Kokura Army Arsenal, one of the largest weapons factories in western Japan, using shirasu (volcanic ash). Depending on the viewing angle, a faint map of the Kokura Army Arsenal appears beneath the shirasu in this large-scale work, approximately 2.2 meters high and 1.6 meters wide.
At the event, in addition to a commemorative ribbon-cutting ceremony, a dialogue-style talk show was held with Momoko Mizutani, a curator at the museum. Regarding his work, which is based on the Kokura Army Arsenal where Ikenana's great-grandfather also worked, he said, "When I ate raw whitebait rice bowl on a family trip some time ago, I felt the essence of fish and life in each and every whitebait. I started creating this work because I wanted people to think about that strong life and the scale of the number 40,000. Also, when looking at things, there are many things that cannot be interpreted if you are too far away, and many things that cannot be seen in their entirety if you are too close, so I would like people to feel that through my work as well. It is not just about 'thinking about peace,' but also about 'understanding the history of war,' so I hope that people will take that into consideration."
Please feel free to stop by if you're in the area.
[Graduate School / Faculty of Art and Design]
