Hiroshige Kagawa’s Series Of Memorial Tribute Paintings To Distasters Caused By Man And Nature

The costliest natural disaster ($285 billion) ever recorded by the world bank, an earthquake called Tokohu and Tsunami in the northeastern prefecture of Japan, is the inspiration behind the behemouth watercolor paintings of Hiroshige Kagawa. Spanning 54 feet across and 17 feet high, the artist began devoting his time and energy four years ago to making these works and remembering that fateful day March 11th, 2011. Prior, Kagawa had spent his time creating large scale canvases of solar systems and enchanted forests. After the disaster he had a clearer vision of where he wanted to go and for the last several years worked on three large scale Tokohu memorial paintings featuring affected areas.

“Fukushima” depicts the now abandoned structure of the Tedco nuclear reactor. Done in an eerily twisted metal hue it peers inside the demolished building. What we don’t see is the meltdown of nuclear waste leaking into the ocean. A solution which has yet to be solved. Next in Kagawa’s series is the skeletal remains of a building in Minamisanriku Miyagi Prefecture a town that got wiped out. The building currently only a metal shell appears to be in an abandoned wheat field where people once lived and worked. Illuminated by an orange hue it eventually turns into something else which might appear on a hot imaginary planet near the sun.

A snowy scene of ruins accounts for the third piece. The part of Japan hit by the disaster is known for long brutal winters and Kagawa’s painting metaphorically references nuclear or atomic winter. The term is usually associated with nuclear warfare, where the fall out from bombs turns into a radioactive soot affecting the stratosphere and sun’s ability to promote the healthy growth of plants. When the earthquake struck the whole island moved 8 feet and the earth itself was moved off its axis by a few centimeters. There is still debris from the Tsunami floating onto US waters today four years later. (via Spoon & Tamago)