FUKUSHIMA--A contemporary Spanish painter who translates sights and sounds into emotional works of art has focused on victims and survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake for his latest show.
FUKUSHIMA--A contemporary Spanish painter who translates sights and sounds into emotional works of art has focused on victims and survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake for his latest show.
The exhibit, José María Sicilia, Fukushima Flores de Invierno (Winter Flowers), which opened on Oct. 4 at the Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art in Fukushima city, contains around 100 works including paintings and spatial designs.
One installation, “Mu” (Nothingness), comprises 17 perfectly white rectangular panels hung upright on a wall. Each has a name written underneath: Ishinomaki, Iwaki, Kamaishi, Minamisoma, and so on. They are the names of cities on Tohoku’s coast that were ravaged by the tsunami.
When one takes a closer look at the seemingly plain panels, visuals emerge, symbolizing images and sounds of the tsunami and the screams of people running to escape.
Some call the art “abstruse,” but a university student observing it said, “It feels like I can hear the roar of the sea and the voices of people sealed inside (the panels).”
Sicilia, 59, was born in Madrid and now lives on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca. When the disaster struck Japan on March 11, 2011, the artist was consumed by troubles in his own life.
“For personal reasons, I had lost my family and home,” Sicilia said.
During the summer of 2011, an acquaintance guided him on a car trip along the Tohoku coast from Iwate to Fukushima prefectures. Sicilia was shocked when they reached their final destination: Minami-Soma.
“There’s a town, but no people. The past was there, but not the present. There is no future in sight,” he said he thought at the time.
Upon returning home, Sicilia went online to gather images and sounds of the tsunami and the voices of people screaming for help. They served as the motif for several of the artworks in the exhibit.
One piece, “Miki Endo,” is a polished bronze statue hanging in the air. Endo worked at the town office in Minami-Sanriku, Miyagi Prefecture. She died after remaining at her post to warn residents over the radio channel for disaster prevention: “A tsunami is coming. Please evacuate to higher ground.”
The statue has undulating waves of gold, like a physical representation of her scream.
When Sicilia returned to Fukushima in April this year, he visited Takashi Sasaki, a 74-year-old scholar of Spanish philosophy. Sasaki did not leave the mandated evacuation zone in Minami-Soma, instead staying to care for his 69-year-old wife, who suffers from dementia.
He told Sicilia the part of town that became “a quiet area, devoid of people” is like “the depths of hell.” The scholar also said it provides a view of “Japan’s society, which was reeling because we couldn’t think for ourselves as individuals (about how to deal with the nuclear disaster and other matters).”
Sicilia also worked with children from the stricken area to produce art that gives form to their memories of the disaster.
“The children, who were strong and lived through a rough experience, were easier to communicate with than adults,” the artists said. “The adults didn’t speak about things like the loss they felt for their family and hometowns, or their anxiety over radiation. But the children were very open about these subjects and taught me about them.”
Sicilia added, “I learned from the children in the disaster zone that the power of creation has to help us go on living.”
José María Sicilia, Fukushima Flores de Invierno continues through Dec. 1. General admission is 800 yen ($8.10) and free for children and high school students.