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Publication Date
1-1-2015
Keywords
artists' books, Student Artists Book Contest, second
Disciplines
Book and Paper
Student Status
Undergraduate student
Year of Graduation
2019
Major
Painting
Faculty / Course
Judy Maloney, Design I
Materials + Techniques
Mixed Media - cherry wood, museum board, lokta paper, sumi ink, etc.
Student Narrative
On March 11th, 2011, a tectonic plate slip precipitated the chain of disasters within the Tohoku region of Japan. The slip resulted in a 9.0 magnitude earthquake that caused the Earth's axis to shift ten inches, altering time and shortening days. The cherry wood box of the book slides and splits through the epicenter of the earthquake to reveal the book. This earthquake triggered the Tohoku Tsunami, which began with the trough that exposed the floor of the ocean - shown by the space created in pulling the bottom and top page apart using the tabs. The description opens in a small book at the end the opening of this creates a wave as it pushes down the other pages: more specifically, it's the tsunami that began with a white crest that turned to black - a black that inundated the coast and took 15,893 lives. Opening the book in a traditional way reveals ink spots in the pages that leak and bleed as the pages progress, illustrating the four nuclear meltdowns and three hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Japan was in a state in between death and rebirth, known as bardo to Buddhists - an intermediate, transitional state of existence. The book handles this recent subject very delicately and is delicate itself. The interaction requires the viewer to intimately participate in the victim and survivor experiences that are portrayed throughout the book. Above all, my deepest condolences go to the victims.
Recommended Citation
Kuan, Mary; Library, Fleet; and Collections, Special, "Bardo" (2015). 2nd Student Artists' Book Contest 2016. 27.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/specialcollections_bookcontest2nd2016/27