Pidgingo-no-Inko: Project Head
2025
linen fabric, wood dust, stones, wooden glue, flour, spanish moss, branch, wood, bamboo, wire, twine, kite string, paper clay, water color, sumi ink, paper, acrylic paint, house paint, cardboard, found objects, plastic models, amplifier, five-channel sound, projector, media player, 20 min video
Ulterior Gallery
2025
linen fabric, wood dust, stones, wooden glue, flour, spanish moss, branch, wood, bamboo, wire, twine, kite string, paper clay, water color, sumi ink, paper, acrylic paint, house paint, cardboard, found objects, plastic models, amplifier, five-channel sound, projector, media player, 20 min video
Ulterior Gallery
Pidgingo-no-Inko is a sci-fi satire video installation that updates the concept of "war" in modern society. I attempt to answer two questions: Why can't we stop the genocide? And how have cultures influenced it?
A large sculptural structure resembles a human head, finished with ears, using traditional Japanese dry-lacquer techniques. This sculpture projects a video from the eye on the wall. The structure contains miscellaneous elements: broken eggshells, tiny birds, an empty rib cage, and a monstrous black spider in the center, tied to its eight limbs on the sticks surrounding it. Conceived as a planning model by the imaginary parakeets, the structure allegorically seeks to reorder histories of mass violence and figure out how to dismantle the evil force.
I tackled the elements of the overwhelming speed and volume of information circulating on social media, long history books, and the simultaneous rise of voices from historically oppressed people and their interconnected struggles. These symbolic forms also represent my observation and caution regarding the information technology industry and censorship—how information enters and exits our attention and the skeletal systems through which it is monitored.
A large sculptural structure resembles a human head, finished with ears, using traditional Japanese dry-lacquer techniques. This sculpture projects a video from the eye on the wall. The structure contains miscellaneous elements: broken eggshells, tiny birds, an empty rib cage, and a monstrous black spider in the center, tied to its eight limbs on the sticks surrounding it. Conceived as a planning model by the imaginary parakeets, the structure allegorically seeks to reorder histories of mass violence and figure out how to dismantle the evil force.
I tackled the elements of the overwhelming speed and volume of information circulating on social media, long history books, and the simultaneous rise of voices from historically oppressed people and their interconnected struggles. These symbolic forms also represent my observation and caution regarding the information technology industry and censorship—how information enters and exits our attention and the skeletal systems through which it is monitored.
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Pidging-no-Inko 1 min excerpt
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The central story is the history of weapons development told through the "Sisak," a prototype of the Norden Bombsight, the world's first high-altitude bombing sight that delivered the two nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In parallel, the story unfolds of my Palestinian-American friend who was arrested for burning a flag during a protest. Throughout the story, the audience encounters numerous "wars" instigated by Western countries, including Japan, and new weapons, especially surveillance systems, are tested overseas and brought into the nation to catch the activists and immigrants, the inconvenient people for the government. When researching nuclear weapon history, I needed to visit many sites to draw. However, for the ongoing global war at this speed, the visuals and information on digital media are our reality as we watch live streaming. Through this work, I emphasize how war is connected to our daily lives in this era and where it comes from. This is why I needed to include the Vietnam War, an essential point in the development of technological weapons, the story about the role of entertainment films, and the texts from social media.
Combining text and images and weaving unexpected episodes, multiple time periods, and places intersect, connect, and juxtapose to construct a nonlinear narrative. Furthermore, the names of countries, places, and people are replaced with fictional ones. Only real names like the Manhattan Project and the Norden bombsight are used. The story's backdrop is peppered with manga, films, and music that depict past wars, weaving together episodes that question the role of culture. |
Sisak at the Dark Star
2025
wooden dust, flour, wood glue, linen fabric, wood, Sumi ink, Copper leaf, silver leaf, paper clay, turning stand, plywood, chalk, acrylic paint, house paint. canvas cloth
2025
wooden dust, flour, wood glue, linen fabric, wood, Sumi ink, Copper leaf, silver leaf, paper clay, turning stand, plywood, chalk, acrylic paint, house paint. canvas cloth
The character, Sisak, was created by faithfully replicating the surface of a prototype design for the Norden Bomb Sight, which had been under development as a high-altitude bombing sight long before the Manhattan Project began. It was used horizontally, but when turned vertically, it had an old-fashioned, robotic shape, so I chose it for the character. The Japanese word "Shisaku" also has multiple meanings, such as prototyping, contemplation, and poetry, which sounded good for me when building an imaginal area along with history and facts.
The one-person boat that Sisaku rides in was inspired by an illustration by Edward Valigursky (1926-2009), whose illustrations were owned by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. In that illustration, the occupant's hands and feet are chained, resembling a death row inmate sent into space, a sort of futuristic version of the electric chair. I added an insect net flapping about instead of a national flag, and a spiraling bar resembling energy.
The one-person boat that Sisaku rides in was inspired by an illustration by Edward Valigursky (1926-2009), whose illustrations were owned by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. In that illustration, the occupant's hands and feet are chained, resembling a death row inmate sent into space, a sort of futuristic version of the electric chair. I added an insect net flapping about instead of a national flag, and a spiraling bar resembling energy.
The video builds on my research trips, interviews with survivors and specialists over the past decade, and my ongoing research using books and digital media. I have visited and created artworks at nuclear-related facilities in the United States and Japan. The end credits list the facilities and locations photographed in the video: Historic Wendover Air Field (UT), White Sands Missile Range (NM), Sandy Hook Nike Missile Range (NJ), El Paso-Juárez Border (TX), and the National Border Patrol Museum (TX). Because no photographs were used, the end credits do not list all the locations I visited: the science and history museums and facilities in Los Alamos and Albuquerque, the Hanford Site, Historic Wendover Field, Pearl Harbor, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, the paintings used in the video—30 paintings and drawings — contain information about these locations and the backgrounds.
© 2015 Gaku Tsutaja