Curatorial Projects > (re)collection (2012)

Mayumi Hamanaka
Invisible Lands – Water Tower & Two Ladies (detail), 2012
Archival pigment ink print

“Among the massive amount of photographs shipped from Japan, I focused on some individual images. I didn’t see all of the photographs. I went through 1,000 and decided on 5-6 individual images. The amount overwhelmed me. What would happen if we lose everything in one day? It might be because of disasters such as earthquakes, or something simpler like the end of relationships. What’s left for us might remind us of happy memories but also become the relics that only remind us of sadness. However we cannot live without our memories.

I felt that each photograph was the proof of someone else, but it is missing the existence of the photographer, the existence of the model(s) and the existence of the landscape. I found it interesting that all of these photographs now point to the city of Yamamoto, Miyagi and nearby areas, because that’s where these photographs were found. Some of the photographs here are permanently missing the information of the photographs original locations, where they were originally taken, and by whom and with whom. I always think that the accumulation of each person’s memories creates his/her world that contains traces of his/her activities. I wanted to create this invisible world that someone lost forever.” – Mayumi Hamanaka

(re)collection – A collaboration with Lost and Found: Family Photos Swept by the 3.11 East Japan Tsunami

September 12 – October 27, 2012
Intersection for the Arts
San Francisco, CA