Category: INSTALLATIONS

THE JUICE OF WAR

– Hiroshima and Nagasaki –

for “The Smell of War” exhibition

installation (2015)

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CONTEXT: The Smell of War exhibition http://www.thesmellofwar.be
VENUE: The castle De Loving, Poperinge, Belgium. 
CURATOR:  Peter de Coupere

When I was a child, my bedroom contained a shelf of my mother’s books and one of these book was about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Inside I found photos of burned and rotten bodies. A field full of bodies that no longer look like bodies. It was in the high summer season so the bodies would quickly rot and flies laid eggs wherever they could.

The photos were so shocking to me that for nights I was afraid to go to sleep.  But I did not dare ask my mother to remove that book from my bedroom because it seemed rude to the victims. As I grew up I peeked into the book again and again, out of curiosity for the atomic bombings, and I realized that I was getting better in dealing with the fear. I ended up sleeping with that book until I left home at the age of 17.

I completely forgot about these pictures, but all of sudden, while I was thinking what to show here, I realized that they were the reason why I could not think anything else beside the smell of rotten flesh when I think of “the smell of war”.

In other words, working on this concept was digging into my memories.


Instruction:
Please put your head in a bowl. This smell was manually extracted from the juice of burned and rotten flesh.

The prime minister of Vlamish government also enjoyed the work at the opening.

Production:

This is a bizarre story of purchasing meat of 20 euros at a supermarket, and made it rotten till it starts stinking for extracting the smell… I am a bit ashamed to tell you the whole story but this is the real story behind this work.

This is a bizarre story of purchasing meat of 20 euros at a supermarket, and made it rotten till it starts stinking for extracting the smell… I am a bit ashamed to tell you the whole story but this is the real story behind this work.

When the curator Peter de Coupere asked me to participate in the exhibition with the theme of “the smell of war”, I could not think of anything else than the smell of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That would be the case by most of Japanese. We grew up with reading the cartoons “Hadashi no gen　はだしのゲン”, with full of illustration of burned and rotten corps and maggot. Also it illustrates the bad odor.

The interface design:

Purchasing the parts for “katrol”
 

I sew the acrylic bowl myself because there was no company who could do this… it was quite some work.

I asked Peter, the organizer, for hanging the bowl with some instructions.

According to the testimonies of those who experienced it, the victim was charred in an instant, and after the black rain, the sun continued to shine and decayed as it did. It was the hottest time of the year. I simulated this process at my atelier in Japan: I bought pieces of meat at a local supermarket: chicken and pork and whatever I could find, and burned them.

And dried them for 10 days in the sunlight.

This is the simulation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was high in the summer time when they got bombed, and the burned corps got rotten quickly.  Flies lay eggs and it stank terribly everywhere.

After 5 or 6 days they started to smell like a garbage.  Around the 10th day it started to stink sour, and this was the limit (also for my neighbor…).

I extracted a little to check the smell and turned out that it was missing the burned scent, so I burned them extra.

Then sliced them.  My cutting board was suddenly covered with the flies. It was like a horror movie. I couldn’t inhale even, so I inhaled the fresh air 10meters away and ran to the cutting board, and repeated this.

After the extraction, I filterd it, but it also releases smells everywhere… I got headache from it.  If I would have continued this process I would have gotten depressed.

In my fridge is the extract and beer mixed up…it’s safe as long as it’s concealed 🙂

(1) ROOM OF GEISHA

The Head of the VOC Visiting a Geisha

This is a room with the Japanese smells that the head of the VOC was presumeably smelling in Japan about 400 years ago.

[A] Geisha cosmetics available for the public to wear

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Ueda has developed 8 fragrant cosmetics that geisha’s were presumeably wearing.

 

[B] Live performances in the room installation

In some weekends ‘a real geisha’ lives in this room with wearing the smells. (cosplay / costume-play)

 

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[C] Head-mounted olfactory display

This is a smell interface that Ueda has developed. In the box you can smell those scents that the head of the VOC was smelling in Japan. (Self-made extracts are being used.)

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smell 1: camphor

The smell of these trees can be found everywhere in Japan, especially around the Shinto shrines. It cools you down in the terribly hot and humid summer. The aromatic crystals that Japanese people obtain from this bark have the same smell as to Borneol but are much cheaper. Therefore we, the VOC, have marketed this product as an alternative to Borneol, with great success. We trade this product for spices like clove and cinnamon.

– The head of the VOC commenting on the smell of camphor –

smell 2: agarwood

This smell surrounds the geisha house and invites me to enter it. They appear to burn this wood permanently as incense. It permeates the entire red light district. It makes me feel relaxed and excited at the same time.

– The head of the VOC commenting on the smell of agarwood –

smell 3: teeth enamel water

Geisha’s paint their teeth black with this liquid every morning as a ritual. Since this liquid emits a pungent smell, my geisha finishes her ritual before I wake up, so that I won’t smell it. I asked her what the liquid is made from, and she answered, tea leaves, fermented rice, syrup, rusted metal, and insect-induced tree excretion. When she bares her black teeth in a smile, they protrude so much that they make me think of a vampyre.

– The head of the VOC commenting on the smell of teeth enamel water –

(2) ROOM OF THE HEAD OF THE DUTCH VOC

The Head of the VOC Visiting a Geisha

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This is a room with the Dutch smells that Maruyama geisha’s were smelling in the island Dejima.

Smell 1: coffee

‘The VOC chief factor uses to drink this black drink every morning. It smells slightly burnt to me. He says it’s made of beans. I thought it might be similar to Japanese barley tea, so I tasted it. It was terribly bitter, but I managed to swallow it. I have heard that an interpreter had to vomit after he’d drunk it for the first time.’

– Maruyama geisha commenting on the smell of coffee –

 

Smell 2: tobacco

‘For relaxation after eating and intercourse, the VOC chief factor prefers to inhale smoke from a pipe in which some kind of leaves are burned. The smoke fills the whole room. It smells. It smells somewhat sweet, bitter, and rather smoky, as when fallen autumn leaves are being burned.’

– Maruyama geisha commenting on the smell of tobacco –

 

Smell 3: meat

‘On special occasions, this food is often served at dinner. I asked the VOC chief factor where it comes from and he answered, to my surprise, that it comes from the stable at Dejima. He kindly offered me a piece but I could not accept it because I was afraid to receive bad karma by eating it. By the heart of Buddha, we are not allowed to eat four- legged animals.’

– Maruyama geisha commenting on the smell of meat –