Praying for Miracles

Through the events that transpired on March 11, 2011, the world came to realize that being able to maintain the kind normalcy it used to know will take a rare miracle. The Japanese islands, on vulnerable plates and a host to numerous nuclear power plants, have become aware that every moment of their reality only existed as an extension of the delusionary confidence that "everything is fine and safe".

Located 200 kilometers southwest of Tokyo sprawls the everyday landscape along the Sea of Enshu, whose existence can only be accredited to a succession of miracles. If the System continues to refuse to see that they are clinging onto the myth of nuclear safety, it will have to pray that these miracles will never end.

I present here my series "In Reminiscence of the Sea", a project begun in 2007 along the Sea of Enshu. The peaceful landscapes sy¬¬mbolize the ephemerality of the world we live in and our physical selves, and the myth that barely exists through the madness of the Chubu Electric Power Company that refuses to shut down the vulnerable nuclear power plant.

Is praying for miracles our only option for our remaining future?

Noritoshi Hirakawa
March 27, 2011

» Press Release(PDF)

Noritoshi Hirakawa has shown internationally in museum solo exhibitions including: Kunsthalle, Vienna, Austria (2003); Hermès Forum, Tokyo (2002); Magazin4, Vorarlberger Kunstverein, Bregenz, Austria (2001); Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan (1996); Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (1993); Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan (1989); and group exhibitions: Japan Society, New York (2007); Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea (2007); Kunsthalle Vienna, Austria (2006); PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; Kunst Werke, Berlin, (2006); and Museum Carouge, Geneva (2005).