Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka

Namazu, the giant catfish that causes earthquakes with thrashes of its tail, has been depicted in popular Japanese artworks since the 1400s. The story originated from a fisherman that observed the activity of catfish, imagining the fish could predict earthquakes. I often allude to fisherpeople in my work, and broadly humans’ ability to be intimately in tune with their specific environments over time, a knowledge which we are losing.

My recent work explores the generational impacts of actual earthquakes, aftermaths, and relocations, also imagining their increased frequency into the future. In parallel, I am thinking metaphorically about earthquakes, tsunamis and aftershocks, as they relate to responses to personal events. I connect environmental, ancestral, and internal experiences, thinking about the impacts on one's somatic experience of grief alongside movement toward claiming new realities. I am interested in the tension between the human will to try and mitigate disaster, (including personal events) and the Japanese expression shikataganai, meaning that we cannot control negative events but only our response to them, an acceptance of instability. 

I handcarved and handprinted lino blocks to create the blue imagery around the perimetre of the work. These depict wind-chiseled sea ice in the arctic, but naturally appear to look like water. I am always thinking about human and other life forms' connections across bodies of water, as well as the impacts of climate change, especially on communities still embedded in their particular lands. I use traditional paper and papermaking techniques from East and Southeast Asia; this knowledge has been passed down for over 1,000 years and relies on reciprocal relationships with land and water.