Atsunobu Katagiri: Sacrifice

Subtitled 'Words Spoken by Flowers within 30 km of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant', ikebana artist Atsunobu Katagiri's new show is part of the ongoing Hikarie Contemporary Art Eye series and highlights the flower artist's work in Minamisoma, a city heavily damaged by the triple disasters of 3.11 and located on the edge of the exclusion zone established after the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi. In 2013, three years after the disaster, the endangered monochoria korsakowii (oval-leafed pondweed) flower was found growing wildly near the coast, in areas where the tsunami had washed away houses and livelihoods. Katagiri was inspired by this fragile blue blossom, which led him to undertake a series of projects in Fukushima. See photos documenting these at Hikarie's eighth-floor gallery complex, and ponder the meaning of nature reviving itself where humans are still struggling to do the same.