Orange–Net–Work

Orange- Net- Work explores historical links between Japan and Australia during the Pacific War[AF1] of 1941 to 1945. In making the work I hoped to touch on the deep intergenerational hurts and divisions created by war and to suggest an enduring capacity to recover and heal from these traumas.

The Seto Inland Sea and Sydney Harbour both played a pivotal role during the Pacific War of 1941-49. The Inland Sea was an Imperial Japanese Naval base, harbouring training centres and shipyards. Sydney Harbour was a base for the Royal Australian Navy and a port for US Navy ships. 

In 2016 I returned to Teshima, the site of a previous project (Sue to fill in), to retrieve a very large orange net I had made there with the local community. I also brought back three generations of clothing that had lain untouched in an abandoned house in the village for over 20 years.

With these clothes I made large scale frottages in which images of naval and civilian clothing are layered onto sounding maps of these two bodies of water. The naval clothes are from the Royal Australian Navy’s heritage collection on Spectacle Island in Sydney Harbour and include a wartime Japanese submariner’s jacket donated by the Japanese Midget Submarine Association.

The completed work comprised the frottages, the net and a soundscape created by Gary Warner. It was shown in a group exhibition titled Tokkotai, presented in the T5 Camouflage Fuel Tanks, Mosman, Sydney.

The review of Orange-Net-Work is written by Peter Emmett.

Review

Orange-Net-Work soundscape is created in collaboration with Gary Warner.