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Tree of Life, Moonlit Night Room

Wall art Festival in Inawashiro 2022

November 3–10, 2022

Inawashiro, Fukushima

Local residents and current students renovated an unused music room at Inawashiro High School using scrap wood to create an art room. The artist used soil from buckwheat noodle fields and cabbage fields collected in Inawashiro, soil collected from schools in the surrounding area, ashes from temples, soot from wood stoves, and natural pigments to create the spirit of Inawashiro.

On the front, the night silhouette of Mt. Bandai and Lake Inawashiro, which I visited during my research, are depicted, and on the back, the life of animals, illuminated by the full moon, the canal of stars, and the state of circulating nature are depicted. A workshop was held with local residents and current high school students to paint the mural, and the students were also involved in the production by "painting the nature of Inawashiro with soil on the hearts of the animals".

The work was also completed as a “place” by holding a dance performance by Inawashiro elementary school students led by stage actor Shidasumi and an impromptu drum orchestra workshop by Hiryu Sobashima, the mayor of “YuruYuru,” a waste wood eco-village, with tour participants.

The coexistence of nature and human activities in it was expressed through the creation of the mural and the performance.

Tree of Life, Moonlit Night Room

©︎2023-2025 HARUNA SUGISAKI.

All portrait rights.

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