About the artwork

Two projections show thousands of photographs. The boy in the photographs is the artist’s 13-year old son, and this video installation is a collection of photographs of him engaged in various performances throughout Echigo-Tsumari. The boy is an agent of change, enacting the traditions of the satoyama without understanding them. One senses the pressure he is under to maintain form and the inevitability of his desire to adapt them to his own needs. Obedience and rebellious tension are played out between the still image and the movement created by the photographic sequence in time.