Katsushige Nakahashi: The Depth of Memory
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ZERO Project
KAITEN/San Francisco |
Images: |
Kaiten, which means “a turn toward heaven,”
were one-man submarines that were exclusively designed for suicide
missions; in essence human-guided torpedoes. As with Nakahashi’s other Zero Projects the artist – along
with a team of volunteers – will construct a three-dimensional replica
of the Kaiten; the sculpture is constructed entirely of photographs.
This is the first Kaiten that Nakahashi has ever created, however, he
views this work as part of his nearly decade-long running Zero Project series. (See the
construction process | in English
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本語 ). Nakahashi begins by photographing the surface
of a 1:32-scale toy model with a microlens; on average Nakahashi
photographs every square centimeter 27 times. After the photographs are
developed Nakahashi asks volunteers from the community to help assemble
the object, these volunteers begin to painstakingly tape each of the
individual standard-sized photographs together. When all the parts are
assembled, what emerges is a full-scale replica of the toy model. The
Kaiten that will be created at Camerawork will at the conclusion of the exhibition be burned, completing the cathartic process that
Nakahashi sees as essential to the project. Nakahashi’s Zero Projects are never generic,
but rather, he builds specific crafts. The Kaiten that will be built at
Camerawork is the exact modeled that was piloted by Yoshiteru Kubo, who
amazingly survived two missions. (a tiny one-person suicide submarine
used by the Japanese in the war to little effect) Typically with Nakahashi’s Zero Projects the historical resonance of
place is very significant; building specific Zeros that have some sort
of relationship with the local geography. In this case however, because
Kubo’s Kaiten missions were aborted, as he says, “there is no
significant place where the Kaiten landed or hit.” The Kaitens were usually mounted to larger
“mother submarines” and were launched from mounts on the deck of a
submarine. Kubo was assigned to the Japanese Imperial Naval Submarine
I-363, and on May 28th 1945 an enemy vessel was spotted; Kubo was
subsequently deployed, however, he never received orders from the
captain of the I-363 to initiate the attack, so he returned to the
mother ship. As it turned out the captain believed that the weather
conditions would’ve made it next to impossible for Kubo to hit his
target. He is one of the only Kaiten pilot who survived after
being deployed. See an earlier ZERO Project |
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