2023
soil, ash, sand, sound
KANTEN:The Limits of History, held at ApexArt (2023), curated by Eimi Tagore-Erwin
KANTEN 観展: The Limits of History
Exhibition Essay
written by Eimi Tagore-Erwin, Curator
Colorblind
Strata components:
Topsoil
Ash of coral reef
Ash of animals deemed “harmful” by public authorities
Ash of seaweed
River sand from the site of a racial massacre
Soil from Seneca Village
Headphone 1 (right): Selected reading from Paradise, Toni Morrison (1998)
Headphone 2 (left): Selected reading from Home, Toni Morrison (2012)
Pedestal text: Passage from Home, Toni Morrison (2012), pp. 23-24
Quoted text from Home by Toni Morrison
He was quiet, just sitting next to a brightly dressed woman. Her flowered skirt was a world’s worth of color, her blouse a loud red. Frank watched the flowers at the hem of her skirt blackening and her red blouse draining of color until it was white as milk. Then everybody, everything. Outside the window—trees, sky, a boy on a scooter, grass, hedges. All color disappeared and the world became a black-and-white movie screen. He didn’t yell then because he thought something bad was happening to his eyes. Bad, but fixable. He wondered if this was how dogs or cats or wolves saw the world. Or was he becoming color-blind? At the next stop he got off and walked toward a Chevron station, its black flames shooting out from the V. He wanted to get into the bathroom, pee, and look in the mirror to see if he had an eye infection, but the sign on the door stopped him. He relieved himself in the shrubbery behind the station, annoyed and a little frightened by the colorless landscape. The bus was about to pull away, but stopped to let him reboard. He got off at the last stop—the bus station in the same city where he had disembarked to the sight of singing high school girls welcoming the war-weary vets. Out in the street in front of the bus station the sun hurt him. Its mean light drove him to look for shade. And there, under a northern oak, the grass turned green.
Relieved, he knew he wouldn’t shout, smash anything, or accost strangers. That came later when, whatever the world’s palette, his shame and its fury exploded. Now, if the signs of draining color gave notice, he would have time to hurry up and hide. Thus, whenever a smattering of color returned, he was pleased to know he wasn’t going color-blind and the horrible pictures might fade.
This work was inspired by the ash collected from a cremation company for harmful animals killed by the Japanese government. It also draws on selected excerpts from Toni Morrison’s short novels that touch on memories of the Korean and Vietnam wars. The soil strata serve as a metaphor for the accumulation and repetition of human violence that lie beneath the convenience of our everyday lives. Combined with a sound installation of passages from Morrison’s texts, Colorblind offers an homage to countless lives that have been erased and buried in all corners of the world. One layer of soil consists of soil from Seneca Village where African Americans once resided before being evicted to make a public space, Central Park. The ash of “harmful” animals is placed between layers of the ash from coral reefs and seaweed. Through this work, I hope to consider how the memories of war, soil and animal slaughter affect the human psyche in contemporary society.
The nasally smell emanating from the ashes was reminiscent of the suffering of the animals. We are living on top of the layers of human’s repeated mistakes. One layer consists of the soil from the Seneca Village, where the black community once resided and was evicted to make a public space as Central Park. Another layer consists of river sand from the anonymous site where the dead bodies of the victims of the racial massacre were buried and undiscovered Ash of “harmful animals” killed by the public authority to protect farmers and public health are placed with the layers of the ash of coral reef, and the ash of seaweed. The governments kill millions of animals each year to protect farmers and the public health of humans. When we are killing a large number of anonymous “harmful” animals for human benefit, how can we avoid the pervading mental disorder? This work is based on my recent research on animal slaughter in our contemporary society and how these massacres affect our human psyche. The sound pieces are selected readings from Toni Morrison’s novel. Only the parts related to the Korean War or The Vietnam War are read by the artist.