B E T W E E N E A R T H A N D T H E H E A V E N S :
A S P E C T S O F C O N T E M P O R A R Y J A P A N E S E A R T I I, Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya, Japan, 1996
Curator: Kazuo Yamawaki
Rufino Tamayo Museum, Mexico City, Mexico, 1996
Director: Christina Galvez
Organization: Nagoya City Art Museum, Chunichi Daily News, The Japan Foundation
In cooperation with: Asahi Beer ArtsFoundation, Shiseido Co., Ltd., Toyota Motors Corporation, Japan Arts Fund, Fundacion Olgay
Rufino Tamayo, Fondo De La Amistad, Mexico-Japon, Centenario De La Migracion, Jamonesa A Mexico, IMBA
automobile (Renault 5), Geigercounter, jutebag, sand, barbed wire, steel, video projector, binoculars, announced nuclear tests data from the United States, England, China, France and the Soviet Union
The entire walls of the exhibition space were lined from top to bottom with handmade wall- paper covered in tiny text—recorded data of all the nuclear tests that have been made pub- lic in the United States, Britain, France, China, and former Soviet Union from 1945 to the present.
One hundred binoculars were hung at the entrance wall. Viewers were encouraged to pick up the binoc- ulars to “investigate” the data and “face the truth.” The use of binoculars is an ironic reminder of the actual tours, which were offered by the U.S. Government to nuclear test sites in the 1950s, where tour- ists were advised to use the binoculars and sunglasses to observe the atomic blasts “for their own safety.” Viewers were able to walk inside the mock shelter and climb up a ladder to sit in the drivers seat. A projector was hidden inside the hood, which projected a series of propaganda footage of nuclear bombs made by the American government to proclaim the safety of nuclear testing, and the tests carried out in the world.
The film also demonstrates how to make a fallout shelter underneath a vehicle. The installation reminds one of a drive-in theater, which was also popular in the U.S. in the 1950s; however, the movie one confronts here shows the explosion of the fearful mushroom clouds that threaten the people and the planet earth.