LIKE GRAVITY

Single-channel video installation(video 7' 51")
2022
In 2021, marking the tenth year since the Great East Japan Earthquake, I visited the Reinan region of Fukui Prefecture, which hosts operational nuclear power plants. There, I met a former power plant employee who had taken early retirement a few years earlier. Once, nuclear power was a source of local pride in this region. However, the disaster shifted that perception drastically. A decade has passed since then, and the reactors continue to operate in silence.
"A nuclear reactor will never explode."
The performer repeats the phrase from the final question of the internal exam he took when he first joined the company, but in reverse order. The video alternates between playing forwards and backwards, and the mispronounced reversed phrase transforms into a different meaning in Japanese through the reverse playback. As the repetitively recited innocent wish, A Nuclear Reactor Will Never Explode, gradually turns into a repetition of incantations.
LIKE GRAVITY
Single-channel video installation(video 7' 51")
2022
2021年、東日本大震災から10年という年に、現役で稼働する原子力発電所をもつ福井県嶺南地域に赴いた。そこで数年前に早期退職した元発電所社員と出会う。かつて、この地域では原子力発電所は誇れる地元産業だったという。しかし、震災を機にその認識は一変した。それから10年という年月が経ち、今もなお原子炉は静かに稼働し続けている。
「原子炉は爆発しない」
彼が入社当初に受けた社内試験の最後の設問のフレーズを逆さ言葉で繰り返す。ビデオは純再生と逆再生を繰り返し、言い損じた逆さ言葉が、逆再生を通して別の日本語の意味に転化していく。「原子炉は爆発しない」というおまじないの繰り返しが、次第に呪文の繰り返しへと転換していく。
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