SEN Photography
About the show March 10 - April 30 @ HERE ARTS CENTER SOHO NEW YORK
In Case of Emergency: Collaborative Project Curated by aricoco, Featuring Work by Motomimi, SEN Tadatoshi, and aricoco
SONAE AREBA UREI NASHI: “If you are prepared, you will have no worries”
This Japanese proverb echoes like a mantra inside the heads of Motomimi, SEN, and aricoco, the Japanese-born New York artists brought together for In Case Of Emergency at HERE Arts Center. What makes us prepared for unforeseen crisis? Are we ever going to be ready?
This collaborative exhibition features photos, prints, videos, and paintings, commemorating the 5th anniversary of Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, which caused the tsunami triggering the nuclear blast in Fukushima, Japan.
The artists question the helpless human actions often used to protect against the power of both natural and man-made disasters. After returning to Fukushima in 2015, Motomimi’s MANGA-style propaganda posters juxtapose the horrors of the radiation with vivid color full of playful energy, urging the people here in NYC to be prepared for any possible emergencies. SEN’s photographs capture the superficially peaceful scenes of horrifying contaminated sites that still haunt the entire nation. The Earthquake shifted aricoco’s work towards an “Emergency Drills” series: silkscreened hazmat suits and gas masks, videos, and performances. The materials and means point to the often futile methods of protecting oneself and the act of evacuating an emergency.
A collaborative video, made specifically for the show, investigates these “emergency drills.” Suited up in Motomimi’s colorfully tailored Bosai Hoods – civilian “disaster-preventing” gear reminiscent of wartime Japan – the artists explore aricoco’s distressed optimism that they someday perfect their evacuation skills. The clumsy, awkward nature of the drills feel ineffective, a type of desperate play, yet the sudden closeness and common humanity reveal their struggle and desperate hope to survive an actual disaster, each moment, together.
Credits
Image Credit:
SEN Tadatoshi, Prelude to Evacuations, 2015, Digital Media
Tickets
FREE
March 10 - April 30
Gallery Hours
Tues-Sat | 2-7 PM