The Fire That Doesn’t Go Out @ Oberlin College – Baron Gallery
Reviewed by Laura Kennelly
“Nuclear energy is the most dangerous technology on earth. It is the fire that doesn’t go out.” That description of the Japanese disaster (and warning for the rest of us) is from Oberlin College alum Kennette Benedict (OC ’69) publisher and executive director, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. The destruction that followed the huge earthquakes off the coast of Japan almost a year ago has inspired a show that requires an investment of time (getting to Oberlin) and thought (seeing what these sometimes subtle artistic creations say).
A video of a dozen or so kids in Japan strikes the eye at the show’s entrance. The kids are in a huddle outside what looks like a factory or shipyard. They have promised to shout out 100 exhortations in hopes to cheer themselves up after the atomic disaster. Their wishes are profound at times, but the ones most touching were the personal ones so expressive of their youth such as “I’m going to get a girlfriend this year.” You hope they do. Inside, art hangs on the walls, origami rests on tables, installations cover the middle, and on the floor a walked-through circle of white power which says “Peace” is pretty much ignored by visitors (who track through it — cool symbol, huh?).
The artist’s statements on the website give another clue about what’s going on. As exhibiting artist and Oberlin graduate Marianna La Rosa Maruyama (an Obie who has lived in Tokyo for the past six years and whose life was disrupted by the earthquakes, tsunami, and the subsequent atomic radiation disaster) writes, “My work is centered on the idea of boundaries, real and imagined: as lines seen in maps, shorelines and fault lines in nature, definitions which set us apart as individuals from the rest of the world, edges of consciousness and the frames which inform the way we see and think.” This show offers some steps to overcome boundaries of sympathy, politics, and personal prejudice.
Other participating artists include Chim^Pom, Alison Meyers-Ohki, Migiwa Orimo, Greg Sholette, elin o’Hara slavick, Hironobu Suzuki, Hiroshi Sunairi, Eriko Takahashi, Shimpei Takeda, Misato Yugi, Yuichiro Nishizawa, Matthew Greco, Todd Ayoung, Harlem Renaissance High School, SINUU and Sarah Schuster.
Curated by Nanette Yannuzzi, Associate Professor of Art, and Sylvia Watanabe, Associate Professor and Co-director of Creative Writing) and sponsored by the Department of Art, Creative Writing Program, English Department, Clarence Ward Art Library, Main College Library, and Oberlin Shansi the show fits comfortably in the newish Baron Gallery space.
The show runs until Fri 3/30 (closed Sun 3/25) at the Oberlin College Baron Gallery: East College Street Development, 65 East College Street, Oberlin OH 44074. Hours: Fridays 5:00-8:00, Saturday & Sunday 1-5:30 pm.
Laura Kennelly is a freelance arts journalist, a member of the Music Critics Association of North America, and an associate editor of BACH, a scholarly journal devoted to J. S. Bach and his circle.Listening to and learning more about music has been a life-long passion. She knows there’s no better place to do that than the Cleveland area.