Radiating with an underlying sense of loss and sorrow, the haunting works of interdisciplinary installation artist Kei Ito address the trauma of nuclear disaster, the anxiety of potential modern-day catastrophe, and the possibilities of healing and reconciliation. His artwork is fundamentally rooted in the intergenerational trauma and legacy passed down from his late grandfather, Takeshi Ito, who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, yet lost many family members and friends from the explosion and subsequent radiation poisoning. Often experimenting with cameraless photography techniques and sculpture, Ito’s installations explore complex themes of collective memory, mortality, heritage and identity.
Currently on view at the Georgia Museum of Art through July 14, the exhibition “Kei Ito: Staring at the Face of the Sun” unfolds across seven distinct projects. Each creates an opportunity to investigate horrific historical events, memorialize those lost to tragedies and reflect on an individual’s place within the contemporary nuclear age. The exhibition was organized by Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, a curator of American art at the Peabody Essex Museum who previously worked at the Georgia Museum of Art.
“Sungazing Scroll” is a 200-foot-long photogram of fiery oranges and reds punctuated by a black teardrop pattern. Ito created the work by exposing Type C photographic paper to sunlight, pulling it in front of a small aperture while inhaling, then pausing to exhale. The pattern represents a total of 108 breaths, a number chosen for its ritual significance in Japanese Buddhism; to bring in the Japanese New Year, bells are chimed 108 times by temples to represent the 108 earthly desires a human must overcome to achieve nirvana. Contemplating the connection between the sun and his family history, “Sungazing Scroll” ruminates on a memory Ito holds of his grandfather describing how the sky looked like it was being lit up by hundreds of suns the day the bomb was detonated over Hiroshima.
Ito recognizes nuclear warfare as a globally destructive force, and his work “Eye Who Witnessed” dissolves the distinction between the attacker and the attacked to underscore this idea of shared suffering and worldwide trauma. The installation consists of a total of 108 C-print photograms depicting eyes: 54 Japanese atomic bomb survivors interspersed between 54 American “downwinders,” or researchers and civilians who were exposed to radioactive contamination or fallout surrounding nuclear weapon testing sites.
These eyes reappear in “To Implore Your Light,” a two-part project that attempts to unearth the hidden nuclear legacy embedded within physical spaces across the U.S. During his 2021 residency at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Ito projected fleeting images of 108 eyes onto buildings located on the museum’s grounds, specifically ones that once housed Sprague Electric Company, which was commissioned during WWII to develop a specialized capacitor for the first atomic bombs. Within the gallery, tiny slides of the 108 eyes are suspended above bricks, casting shadows that echo the projection performance and representing warfare’s residual grasp on a location’s sense of place.
Ito will join fellow artist Binh Danh to discuss their bodies of work in a conversation moderated by museum director David Odo on Feb. 8 at 5:30 p.m. Danh, who teaches photography at San Jose State University, immigrated to the U.S. from a war-torn Vietnam in 1979. He is best known for his invention of a chlorophyll printing process through which positives of photographs are placed onto leaves, covered with glass and exposed to sunlight for extended periods of time to embed the image through photosynthesis. Both artists use unconventional photographic techniques to reflect on themes of war, intergenerational trauma, identity and reconciliation.
Ito and Danh’s discussion will be followed by 90 Carlton: Winter, a quarterly reception hosted by Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art, the next evening on Feb. 9. The museum’s Atomic Age film series, which kicked off with Hiroshima Mon Amour last week, continues with screenings of Children of Hiroshima on Feb. 15 and the original 1954 Godzilla on Feb. 29. Additional events highlighting the exhibition include a creative aging art workshop on Feb. 20; teen studio on Feb. 29; student night on Feb. 29; art and wellness program on Mar. 10; lecture with Naomi Egel, assistant professor in the Department of International Affairs at UGA, on Mar. 20; and family day on May 18. Visit georgiamuseum.org for event details.
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