A Japanese woman artist’s installation art exhibit dubbed The Back of Affection shows the artist’s desire to help heal whatever suffering and sorrow inflected by Japanese soldiers during World War II.

BY MAURICE MALANES
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 19, June 17-23, 2007

BAGUIO CITY – A Japanese woman artist’s installation art exhibit dubbed The Back of Affection shows the artist’s desire to help heal whatever suffering and sorrow inflected by Japanese soldiers during World War II.

The June 5-July 5 exhibit by Midori Hirota at the Victor Oteyza Community Art Space (VOCAS) at the top floor of La Azotea Building along Session Road also seeks to enlighten people about the need to protect forests and the planet as a whole, says a press statement by the Cordillera Green Network, which helped coordinate the exhibit as part of celebrating World Environment Month.

“Being very close to my grandpa as a child, World War II for me was not something in the distant past, but a very clear and vivid reality,” said the 41-year old artist in an article she wrote as background of her exhibit. “Every time I traveled around Asia, I had to feel the legacy of the history between Japan and the other Asian countries, where Japan’s image as an aggressive colonial power loomed large.”

Hirota recalled that when she first visited the Philippines in 2005, she went to Fort Santiago and reflected on what the Japanese army had done there. “Suddenly, my eyes were filled with tears as the Fort changed its color to orange with the sunset,” she said, adding this was the “strongest memory” of her first visit to the country.

Such experiences and her most recent visit to Kibungan, Benguet last May where she helped facilitate a pottery workshop on making monkey masks all influenced her current art exhibit at the VOCAS.

In Kibungan, Hirota exchanged some of her art objects with items from local folk as a symbol of cultural exchange and bonding.
Hirota’s journey and pilgrimage to Kibungan was caught in film by independent filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik. The documentary film is also showing at VOCAS together with her exhibit. Northern Dispatch / Posted by(Bulatlat.com)

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