A video document on the history of the town, the layers of stories in the building and my engagement with the site for SUNSET HOUSE has been completed. It was premiered in Tokyo together with a reading by poet Brandon Shimoda for the event “O Bon, Memories and the Seto Inland Sea” last month. The video engages with forgotten histories such as a stone quarry in the town of Kounoura and the Mutsumi clubhouse which was the source for the building materials used to make this structure. After making initial site visits to the island of Shodo in 2009 and beginning to work with the historic building in 2010 I literally felt stories were seeping from the walls of the building. Those stories were invisible but could be felt strongly while spending time in the community. The second stage of production at SUNSET HOUSE involved writing those stories on paper and affixing them to the mud walls. Now these memories, hopes and dreams are all inside the walls which have been closed with yakita, or burnt wood clapboards. This process is all documented in the following video document. This trailer is just a sample of the entire film which is just over 30 minutes long [Japanese/English subtitles are forthcoming]. Please contact the artist if you are interested in holding a screening of the film in a theater, cafe or gallery in your city. For more information about the artist please see the following digital portfolio from artists space.
SUNSET HOUSE Video Document (Trailer)
A Project by James Jack
32 minutes 09 seconds
2010-2013