Naoya Hatakeyama's Mourning Work: Photography, Trauma, and the Form of Emptiness
Curator Daniel Salum examines Naoya Hatakeyama's photography series 'Rikuzentakata' (2011–present) in a ZUM essay. Hatakeyama, a prominent contemporary photographer from Japan, experienced the loss of his mother and his hometown during the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, which resulted in approximately 1,800 fatalities and devastated the Takata Matsubara pine forest, leaving behind the 'Miracle Pine.' Salum posits that the series illustrates a process of mourning, drawing on Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, while also engaging with the Japanese idea of Ma (間) in relation to Lacan's concept of the Real. He views Hatakeyama's work as a subtle expression of trauma. The essay further highlights the 'half tree' (hanbun no ki) discovered in 2017, symbolizing Ma, and concludes that the art underscores the tension between creation and suffering in the context of human loss.
Key facts
- Naoya Hatakeyama's series 'Rikuzentakata' (2011–present) documents the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami in his hometown.
- The March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami killed about 1,800 people in Rikuzentakata, including Hatakeyama's mother.
- The Takata Matsubara pine forest, with about 70,000 trees planted over 350 years, was reduced to one surviving tree known as the 'Miracle Pine'.
- Hatakeyama was in Tokyo during the earthquake and traveled to Rikuzentakata by motorcycle days later.
- The city was rebuilt on a 10-meter layer of landfill, burying the old city, including Hatakeyama's childhood home.
- In 2017, Hatakeyama found a walnut tree along the Kesengawa River, which he named 'hanbun no ki' (half tree), embodying the concept of Ma.
- Daniel Salum interviewed Hatakeyama in Tokyo in November 2022 as a fellow of the Japan Foundation and Ishibashi Foundation.
- The essay applies Freudian concepts of mourning (Trauerarbeit) and binding (Bindung) to interpret Hatakeyama's photographic practice.
Entities
Artists
- Naoya Hatakeyama
- Daniel Salum
Institutions
- ZUM
- Japan Foundation
- Ishibashi Foundation
- Editions Xavier Barral
- AKAAKA Art Publishing
- Kowade Shobo Shinsha
Locations
- Rikuzentakata
- Japan
- Tokyo
- Kesengawa River
- Tohoku
Sources
- ZUM IMS —