Hanae Utamura
Spring Water, Fault, Body
2021
single channel video with sound, 16min, 3 seg

Hanae Utamura's work “Spring Water, Fault, Body” (湧き⽔と断層と身体) is based on the memories of her father, a scientist who witnessed the economic growth of post-war Japan during the Cold War. The work addresses the conflict between humans and nature and how time influences this supposedly continuous link. Radiometric dating has been used to determine the age of substances on Earth. However, numerous nuclear weapons tests in the mid-20th century rendered this method obsolete, so it is no longer possible to classify air collected after 1950 on the basis of carbon. Utamura compares the associated loss of a sense of time (i.e., a before and after) for contemporary people to a geological fault. This condition, defined as a large crack in the earth's surface, a fault in the strict sense, is also seen in Japanese as a discrepancy between opinions and ways of thinking. “Spring Water, Fault, Body” (湧き水と断層と身体) decentralizes the human perspective and suggests thinking about the family by relating it to existing ecosystems. ----- Gloria Aino Grzywatz

Hanae Utamura is a Japanese interdisciplinary artist and educator based in New York and Tokyo. Utamura works in various media, including video, performance, installation and sculpture. Her work seeks to connect people to the earth, using the physical body as a conduit, with particular attention to the tensions and negotiations between the human and non-human, focusing on toxicity and spirituality. She has performed and exhibited extensively around the world, including the Queens Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, and the Asian Art Biennial at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. Her work has been supported by numerous residencies and fellowships from Berlin to Seoul to Santa Fe, and she has received awards from agencies including the U.S.-Japan Friendship Program, the Japanese Ministry of Culture, and UNESCO.