Tracing Water

Tracing Water was made in collaboration with with Japanese architect, Iwaki Kazuya, and Iwaki Lab, Tokyo Denki University. The work draws on stories about water that circulate orally in the Aramachi Shinden community. Over centuries the community suffered a shortage of water that only ended when the Kawanishi Dam was built in 1980.

The artwork took the form of many giant blue ‘water molecules’ that were woven from fibreglass rods. These were clustered and suspended in six carefully chosen locations in and around the village of Aramachi. These were: a terrace above the dam, a park overlooking the dam, a shrine, a playground and a pond, all in the Aramachi village, and a forested ravine surrounded by rice fields. The sites trace the pre-dam course of the Minami-sawa River.

Tracing Water was in the Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial 2018 in Japan.