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Ceremonial Unfurling of Banner of Extinction (Floor of Vanishing)

Floor of Vanishing was a work Matsuzawa Yutaka presented in a cobblestoned square in Middelburg, the Netherlands square in August 1980, and this video documents the Human Extinction ceremony Matsuzawa performed along with the unfurling of a banner. In this film, Matsuzawa appears highly energetic as he unfolds the pink Banner of Extinction and inscribes on it with a brush: “Humans, Let’s Vanish, Let’s Go, Let’s Go.” The film was shot by Matsuzawa’s eldest daughter Kumiko, who accompanied him on many overseas trips.

Ceremonial Unfurling of Banner of Extinction (Floor of Vanishing)

NR 1980
The Recognition Construction №XIII, Variation’85

This U-matic video incorporates a number of frequent images from Wada's oeuvre: a camera advancing down a colonnaded pedestrian walkway beneath an elevated train line, the figure of a woman with her back to the camera retreating down a street toward a vanishing point by walking or running, and various seascapes. These scenes are spliced together in seemingly random order, sometimes inserted into each other or reshot through close-ups of video monitors. At times the footage is so heavily mediated and re-mediated that images blur into shadow and light, disappear into CRT phosphor dots, or shift hues and patterns from oversaturation and noise. A soundtrack by Hideki Yoshida accompanies the entire sequence, featuring echoing electronic patterns and long tones interspersed with ambient sounds of traffic and beachfront waves. This work was first screened at the Worldwide Video Festival in the Kunstmuseum Den Haag, the Netherlands, in 1986.

The Recognition Construction №XIII, Variation’85

NR 1985
まほろば

Two girls walk down a snowy street on their way home from school. They are residents of "Mahoroba," a place hugged by mountains and sheltered by snow. Winter, the girl in the grey coat, freezes her fingers in the falling snow to make a cold white tower. The girl in the yellow coat, Spring, is staring at her from a little distance. The winter girl in love with the snow is forever innocent. She will remain closed and eventually die. The girl in spring is saddened by this and destroys the winter girl's "mahoroba". The winter girl learns that she cannot resist the changing seasons. The day of adulthood is coming, but the innocence of Winter's youth prevents her from degrading herself, even to the point of death. The spring girl hugs the winter girl's shoulder. The colour of red blood can be seen through the cheeks of the girls. This is the beautiful myth of the girl's misery. Mahoroba, caged in the snow, will eventually be forgotten one day. Somewhere, the birds of spring are singing.

まほろば

NR 1980
ねんねこりんりん

A melodramatic love fairy tale about a man and a woman in love who are separated after graduating from high school, one in Tokyo and the other in Nagoya. They search for each other amid various incidents such as incest, unemployment, and an encounter with a celestial maiden. The story is a melodramatic love fairy tale. The dialogues, tools, and ideas are all deliberately fake, but the fact that the entire film is dedicated to this makes it even more compelling. The space-fantasy ending is also enjoyable, as the nymph who fails to separate the two lovers and win the man bursts her beloved earth like a balloon, and the two become the creatures of a new planet. The original theme song by the two in a musical duet over the scenery of the new planet at the end is a highlight of the film.

ねんねこりんりん

NR 1980
THE NEXT AUTUMN

It is late autumn in Kyoto. A woman who is about to graduate and become a teacher in her hometown and a young man who has been offered a job at a publishing company in Tokyo begin to think seriously about their future together. Then she meets again a young man who has a secret crush on her. Through various conflicts, they come to a conclusion... This authentic melodrama skillfully depicts the psychological twists and turns of a group of young people at a turning point in their lives, set in the tranquil and emotional landscape of Kyoto.

THE NEXT AUTUMN

NR 1988
6/8 Time

In this work performed in 1976 (edited to a video work in 1981), Imai flashes a strobe light directly at the audience seated inside the auditorium in the KBS Laseirum Center in Kyoto and photographs their reaction with his camera. The audience who had expected to see a moving image projected on the surface of a dome-shaped screen on the ceiling is submerged in the dark for the first few minutes. They are left to listen to the recorded sound of a heartbeat and the metronome set to the rhythm of 6/8 time. The sudden eruption of the strobe light as Imai presses the shutter of his camera synchronized to the ringing sound of the metronome brings out diverse reaction from the audience: some cover their eyes with their hands or the pamphlet, while others directly look at the camera and strike some funny poses.

6/8 Time

NR 1981
Over the Threshold

Over the Threshold is about intermarriage between Japanese and Westerners. The filmmakers are a husband and wife team who met during their studies at Britain's National Film & TV School in London. The film documents their first visit to Japan together, during which husband Tezuka introduces his non-Japanese wife to his family (his father coincidentally was the creator of the cartoon series Astro Boy). The point-of-view is largely that of the 'outsider', and much of the film is devoted to her attempts to find out what it means to 'fit in' in Japan. At a deeper level, the film amounts to a socio-cultural study of a Japanese family, who seem to adapt surprisingly well to having a 'geijan' or foreigner in their midst. This aspect is strengthened by the incorporation of interviews with other Western women who have married Japanese husbands.

Over the Threshold

NR 1989