an environment for living creatures. The English word “Cyanidium

Gaps and Synesthesia

caldarium” is spoken now and then, and I can understand that thisis the English name for Ideyu-Kogome from the context. I feel astrange humor on the nuance gap between the bombastic scientific
Latin name and the cute sound of the Japanese name. At the same

A gentle voice quietly talking in English echoes through the door.

time, I cannot help but feel the human desire and karma of wanting

Opening the door, there is an abstract, monochromatic video pro-to unravel the mysteries of the world and to search for roots, in

jection in the dark, quiet space and a beaker containing water andthe act of unilaterally giving names to these small lifeforms, which

two stones are placed in front of the video projection. The video has

are quietly existing in the water. The rocks next to the beaker are

Japanese subtitles. As I watch the video and listen to the story, I get

fossilized sediment, which proves that algae were going abouta strange feeling. Somehow, the Japanese, which appears in front

their lives about two billion years ago. These rocks illustrate bothof my eyes, and the English, which comes into my ears, are tell-existence and absence: they are the evidence, proving that theseing different stories. When subtitles are added, they are usually inkinds of algae definitely existed then, but they are not the algae

sync with the spoken words, which are being translated. However,themselves.

the two languages here do not sync up with each other no matter

Formerly, the earth was a suitable environment to live for Ideyu-

how much I try. Being perplexed, I feel that my senses are getting

Kogome. However, inhabitable environments for them have sharp-sharpened.

ly decreased on the present earth, thus, they quietly live in highly

As I listen to the voice and look at the video and the stones inacidic hot springs, which are too harsh an environment to survive infront of my eyes, the shape of the work gradually starts to appear.

for many creatures. On the other hand, countless natural disasters,

Nagasaka went in the Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido in Marchsuch as annual record-breaking heavy rainfalls, have been occuringwhen it was still snowy and she headed for the Kamuy-Wakka

in recent years and we humans and many creatures on the earth

Waterfalls. Kamuy-Wakka means “god water” in the Ainu language

are faced with a critical situation. However, these disasters might

and the Ainu people feared the waterfalls, referring to them “evilbe events that will create suitable environments for other lifeforms.

water”. It has been said that there are no creatures that can exist inThis work gives us, who tend to see things from the human-cen-the hot and acidic conditions of the waterfalls. However, Nagasaka

tered perspective, opportunities to imagine the time that has beenlearned of the existence of a creature living there during her

flowing on the earth and the time of different creatures that are

research process. What is contained in the beaker is a kind of algae,

living there and to reconsider the multilayered relationship between

called Ideyu-Kogome, which was collected at the Kamuy-Wakka

humans and other lifeforms.

Waterfalls. In Kanji (Chinese characters), Ideyu-Kogome is written
as “温泉小米” (hot spring small rice grain) and it is a kind of algaeIn this work, the story progresses in the first-person narrative for-that lives in highly acidic hot springs, which are normally too harshmat, where Nagasaka narrates her experience of having visited theKamuy-Wakka Waterfalls to an existence called “Angus”. The iden-

the influence of her mentor, Simon Starling. Also, the actual feelingstity of Angus is not revealed and I can only understand to the extent

she acquired while living in Germany, for about five years fromthat he/she is someone close to her, but this uncertainty does not2007, have likely influenced the workʼs structure. She felt “thereobstruct my understanding and experience of the workʼs structure.

seemed a current that art had to be political”[3] in Germany back

However, people who have continuously been following Nagasa-

then and felt constrained by the situation. After thinking “Isnʼt itkaʼs work would notice that Angus has repeatedly appeared in her

okay to put more personal things and muddled feelings in artwork?

works. For example, she presented a performance work in 2014,

Art reflects and connects with society in a broad sense but it doesnʼtcalled 01_Angus, in which the artist herself told a story to the audi-

have to be reality, thus, I shall not make artwork which is one-to-ence[1]. According to a review of the work, “01_Angus is apparently

one virtual image of reality.”[4], she ended up searching for methods

one of the characters the artist created, who is living on this clay

to create a state of multiple and synchronic existences, which do notlandscape. It is the Scottish photographer the artist encountered,

get absorbed into any plausible logic or into one truth.

one of the gods in the Irish mythology, a breed of cattle, the name ofFollowing this line of thought, it is probably not unrelated to hera Scottish county, and deep sea exploring equipment (Acousticallyexperiences in the West that Nagasaka has intentionally shifted theNavigated Geological Underwater Surveyor). That is to say, ʻAngusʼ

timing to tell the story in order not to sync the English narration

is a keystone, which gave inevitability to several coincidences theand Japanese subtitles. It is also important that one needs at least[2]artists encountered as well as a symbol.” . ʻAngusʼ remains un-to understand both languages to grasp the gap between the English

specified, keeping plural possibilities. The fact that she tells the storyand Japanese, thus, the experience is not equally open to everyone.

to the abstract being, who carries multiple characters within him/

Instead of directly putting her political view and stance into work,

her, represents her attitude to entrust the receivers to interpret theNagasaka, who has been doing her artistic activities in the Weststory and I can see her intention to avoid any adamant, mythologi-

as an Asian, female, and sometimes as a minority, expresses thecal story structure. There is no moral lesson that is common in oral

politics that are bare in languages and cultures in her extremely

stories, either. Rather, I feel the artistʼs affirmative intention to trust

gentle, attentive, yet clear manner by presenting the “gap” between

the receivers of the story including the audiences, who are existing

the languages. Isnʼt it because she is someone, who has encounteredbehind Angus.

different languages and cultures and experienced difficulties andIn her methodology of creating a new story by connecting her

possibilities caused by the encounters, she could come up withpersonal experiences with histories and cultures of the land, I can see

the questions and expression through these “gaps”? This kind of1

2

Nagasaka participated in the artist in residence program “Material and Mechanism” at
Aomori Contemporary Art Centre, Aomori Public University [ACAC] in 2014, and, aspart of the program, presented an installation 01_Angus, which included performancesand other elements.
Yuki Kondo, Aki Nagasaka - A story of scenery linked by unconscious responses, “Materialand Mechanism”, Aomori Contemporary Art Centre, 2015, p.53

34Aki Nagasaka Interview “AC2 No.16” Aomori Contemporary Art Centre, 2015, p.87
Same as above.

feeling might be relatively easy to understand for people, who areliving in the regions that were once colonized, where they havemultiple languages while English is their official language. On theother hand, her attitude of not completely affirming whether things
are open and her act of creating gaps subtly suggest that not being
able to communicate or translate easily bears possibilities to create
deeper understandings and conversations, in international societies
where English is used as the common language.
Moreover, it is a logical consequence that the person, who entered the land from outside, started with her personal encounterswith the land and people living there and expressed the sense of
there being a “gap” in a more abstract manner in Hokkaido, where
blood-descendants of the Ainu indigenous people, who had theirown culture and language, are still living now. The expression ofgaps and fissures that Nagasaka attained from her experiences isan ambitious attempt to question the fundamental human desire of“wanting to share with others”.

Hiroyuki Hattori* This text is a revised version of the text originally written by the same author, theexhibition review Gaps and Synesthesia, published on the bijyutsutecho website on
December 29, 2018.
https://bijutsutecho.com/magazine/review/18955 (Viewed on March 15, 2020)

Hiroyuki Hattori

Tsuyoshi Abe

Independent Curator

Phycology

Born in 1978. Hiroyuki Hattori graduated from Waseda University with a Masterʼs in Architecture. Through working as curator at Aomori Contemporary Art Centre [ACAC], hehas been working as associate professor for the Graduate School of Transdisciplinary Artsat Akita University of Art since 2017. He has been developing various activities, including
exhibitions, projects, and research, mainly in Asia. Recent projects he was involved incurating include: Towada Oirase Art Festival–SURVIVE: Time Hoppers on the Earth (Towada
Art Center and Oirase Area, 2013), Media/Art Kitchen (Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila,Bangkok, and Aomori, 2013-2014), Aichi Triennale 2016–Homo Faber: A Rainbow Caravan(Aichi Arts Center and other locations, 2016), ESCAPE from the SEA (National Art Gallery,Malaysia and Art Printing Works [APW], 2017), and Going Away Closer (Centro de Arte
Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, 2018). He was also curator of Cosmo-Eggs in the Japan
Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition–La Biennnale di Venezia in 2019.

Born in Tokyo Prefecture in 1968 and moved to Saitama Prefecture during his childhood.
Tsuyoshi Abe completed his graduate studies at Hokkaido University with a Doctorate
in Science in 1998. Using the red algal genus Laurencia as his research specimen, hetheorized their differentiation process in the seas near Japan by applying the conventionaltaxonomical methodologies as well as the cross experiment and chemotaxonomy byusing cultivated strains. In 1998, he became an instructor at Graduate School of Science,
Hokkaido University. He was involved in the foundation of the Hokkaido UniversityMuseum. In 1999, following the inauguration of the museum, he transferred his position
to be instructor in the Section of Informatics and Media Studies. In 2000, he received
the Best Paper Award of the Japanese Society of Phycology. In 2006, he joined the firstalgae survey of the coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula after almost forty years, and, sincethen, he has been participating in the shallow sea biological monitoring survey of theShiretoko World Natural Heritage site, as the person in charge of seaweeds. In 2012, hetook charge of making a summer exhibition Algae Save the Future of Humankind at themuseum. In 2012, he became a lecturer in the Section of Fundamental Studies. In 2013,
he took charge of loaning the exhibition Algae for Humankind to the National ScienceMuseum, Thailand [NSM]. Since 2019, he has been an associate professor in the Sectionof Fundamental Studies at the Hokkaido University Museum.

Junji Yamamoto
Earth Science, Education, and Museology
Born in Shiga Prefecture in 1973. Junji Yamamoto completed his graduate studies at Tokyo
University with a Doctorate in Science in 2001. He promoted the “Four-dimensional
Exploration of the Earth” project, aiming to dissect the earth spatiotemporally. In 2003, hebecame assistant professor at Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University. He promoted
the “Galaxy in a Stone” project to search for the formative process of the solar system,
where the universe and the earth come in contact. He devoted himself to search residualmaterials from the early stage of the earthʼs formation, which are buried deep within theearth. Upon experiencing the Aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami,
he keenly felt the importance of educational activities and aspired to education andmuseology. In 2012, he became associate professor at the Hokkaido University Museum.
He started the “Sensory Tool for the Earth” project. Since then, he has been committing toimprove scientific literacy through introducing the teaching aids he developed in science
events and lectures and publishing their effects on educational and museological academic
journals. Since 2015, aiming to create a place where society and academia intersect, hehas been doing the “Intellectual-Hub” project to turn university museums into intellectualhubs. He is currently an associate professor at Hokkaido University and working with thegoal to create an ultimate universal museum, where everyone can casually visit.