Labor Mobilization

2006

H steels, botles and nuts

W1800 D1800 H3400mm

Exhibition

2006 Tamatsukuri Art Festival —Light Encounters—　

Tamatsukuri Onsen, Shimane, Japan

This was an installation utilizing a dead space on the precincts of the Tamatsukuriyu Shrine. The work was inspired by my idea to create a sculpture at this place that no heavy machinery or truck can enter, right next to the groundsill of a shrine built on stone steps that must have been piled up in a great labor mobilization effort centuries ago. With that key concept of “labor mobilization” in mind, I drummed up as many people as I could, who helped assemble the work by carrying iron H-beams one by one up and down the stone steps, and eventually piled them up to create a tower structure. During that operation, I kept reflecting on the necessity and efficiency of construction methods that have been employed since ancient times. As also the title “Labor Mobilization” suggests, the project was not so much about the object itself that eventually emerged, but more about the process of creating it.

                                                                                                                                             Translated by Andreas Stuhlmann

玉作湯神社境内内のデッドスペースを使用したインスタレーション。重機もトラックも進入できない、かつて人海戦術で積み上げられたであろう石段で作られた境内の土台が隣接するこの場所で何か彫刻作品を制作したいと思ったのがきっかけである。人海戦術というキーワードを念頭に置き、できる限り人数を集め一本一本鉄のH 鋼を、神社の石段を上り下りしながら運搬し組んでいく。その結果、やぐら状に積み上げられた構造体が出来上がった。その運搬中、大昔から使用されている戦術の必然性、有効性を考え続けた。今回の試みはタイトル「人海戦術」の通り、結果として出来上がったモノではなく、そのモノが出来上がるプロセスを重要視したものである。