Antinuclear

Art in the service of understanding Fukushima’s children

Currently, the exhibitioncan be seen at the community center in Showa, Fukushima Prefecture, with pictures from a sister project in Toowoomba, Queensland

Drawing out the demons and dreams of Fukushima  Artist’s work with the marginalized takes him around the world and back to the place he once called home  JAPAN TIMES, BY KRIS KOSAKA 4 JAN 14, GEOFF READ, ARTIST AND ACTIVIST, HOPES ONE PORTRAIT CAN ECHO THOUSANDS OF MILES. HIS POIGNANT “ARTISTIC COLLABORATIONS” INDEED REVERBERATE WITH THE WHISPERS OF SOCIETY’S MARGINALIZED.

For more than 20 years, his collaborations have detailed the lives of homeless people from Mexico to England to Japan, and Read has also used art to help in drug rehabilitation and occupational therapy. His current focus: to broadcast the suspended dreams of Fukushima’s children.

As Read explains, “In my Strong Children Japan Project, the most important thing the pictures can do is to help these children to have a safer childhood.”……..

In the case of Strong Children Japan, Read paints those he knows personally. Read, his Japanese wife and young son were living in Fukushima at the time of the March 11, 2011, earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster. His mother-in-law grew up in the Oku-Aizu region of western Fukushima. Read and his family moved from England in 2009, eager to raise their young son in a pastoral paradise they had not found in England…….

Read and his family struggled to stay in Fukushima after the tragedy…….

“The art should make people think and talk about the topic — in this case, obviously, nuclear energy, what happens in a disaster, and what should happen. Then, if people see the image and are concerned about the children, they can respond to that in some way. Maybe they’ll write a letter to the Japanese ambassador or maybe they’ll write to the British newspapers and question our own disaster planning here in the U.K.”

The exhibition has traveled all the way from Fukushima and Hiroshima to the corridors of Parliament in England. In the House of Commons in London, Read gave a talk as part of a seminar against nuclear energy to commemorate the second anniversary of March 11.

The family is now back in England. Life in Fukushima proved too stressful, as their faith in government steadily dwindled.

“At the time, the authorities were still in absolute denial, and they were not prepared to respond seriously to the radiation issues,” Read explains. ……

Currently, the exhibition can be seen at the community center in Showa, Fukushima Prefecture, with pictures from a sister project in Toowoomba, Queensland…….

Another recent project took Read to Hiroshima, where he helped create inspiring messages to Fukushima’s children from Hiroshima’s atomic bomb survivors.

“The Hiroshima peace exhibition organizers invited me to show the children’s pictures as part of the peace exhibition and conference they have every year,” he says. “I had a chance to meet some hibakusha, and I felt there was an important connection to be made. Sadly, in its history, Japan has suffered three of the world’s major nuclear disasters, and I have visited each of them. We evacuated first to Hiroshima and then visited Nagasaki. I think it is important to think about the experiences of the hibakusha who had to fight long and hard for recognition of their health problems…..http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2014/01/03/our-lives/drawing-out-the-demons-and-dreams-of-fukushima/#.UsgeodJDt9U

January 4, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized