A workshop on creative work and ethics of curatorial care in the wake of tragegy.
Image: From Atsunobu Katagiri’s Sacrifice series, 2013 –2014. Flowers: Misohagi (Lythrum anceps), Jerusalem artichoke, Crepe myrtle. Location: Ukedo, Namine Town. MOA Collection, 3542/3. Courtesy of the artist and the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, Vancouver, Canada.
My questions and responses to the Great East Japan Earthquake or 3.11 are shared through an exhibition I curated at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia (MOA). Entitled A Future for Memory: Art and Life after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the exhibition was held during the tenth anniversary year of 3.11 in 2021. When working with such a sensitive and complicated situation facing many community members in the disaster region, the curatorial challenge lies in how to convey the voices and feelings of those who are continuously impacted by the current situation, and how we can learn from them. The key is a collaboration with them, and the care and ethics of translating and presenting their voices without making 3.11 appear just as another tragic or sensational event.
Through the relationships created because of 3.11, I started thinking about the role of creativity in the aftermath of such disasters. How might creative works assist recovery processes, healing and the preserving of memories? I begin the seminar by showing my online curatorial tour, which will be followed by discussion with audience.
Series convened by Olivier Krischer and Peyvand Firouzeh, and co-presented by the Power Institute and VisAsia at the Art Gallery of NSW.
People
Fuyubi Nakamura
Fuyubi Nakamura (中村冬日) is a sociocultural anthropologist and curator originally from Tokyo and trained in the UK, currently working at Museum of Anthropology and Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Her research through exhibition curation includes Traces of Words: Art and Calligraphy from Asia (2017) and A Future for Memory: Art and Life after the Great East Japan Earthquake (2021), the recipients of the 2018 Canadian Museum Association Award of Outstanding Achievement in Research and the 2022 Michael M. Ames Prize for Innovative Museum Anthropology, respectively. Her publications include Asia through Art and Anthropology (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013) and Hokkaidō 150: Settler Colonialism and Indigeneity in Modern Japan and Beyond (Critical Asian Studies, 2019).
