Projects
Composting (Wet) Knowledge
2022
The active dialogues held with the Composting Knowledge platform engages with water as a fluid medium that is in the sky, air, sea, rivers, land and our bodies. Our aim is to listen deeply to water in compost as a source of knowledge that informs our daily lives with indigenous forms of knowing from the past. Relearning place names puts land and sea into the center of knowledge with music, food, drawing and learning in the center with ancestral wisdom as our compass.
a guide to loving water
2021
What does water say and what would it teach us? This open-ended exploration of water weaves collective language, indigenous knowledge and creative process into an experiential exhibition. By listening to water as a community, we engage with stories and wisdom which it shares with us today.
The Shapes of the Sky
2020
The Shapes of the Sky creates a collective space for sharing stories of past traditions alongside contemporary enquires of how we can navigate with the sea as a centre. Islanders’ oral histories focus on the abundance of natural resources, methods of a sharing economy and wisdom obtained from ancestral knowledge.
Molokai Window
2018
“Social practice artist James Jack has been working closely with diverse community partners to gather stories pertaining to ‘āina (land) on Moloka‘i. This installation focuses on land not as a commodity to be bought and sold, but on the visceral relationship between Molokaʻi’s people and land. This long process has revealed that while the people of Molokaʻi may have different priorities, they all see the island’s potential tied to the land.”
World Dirt Association
2014-present
Artists James Jack, Yoshitaka Nanjo and Shotaro Yoshino formed this collective based on their mutual love for dirt.
Stories of Khayalan Island
2013-2018
This project begins from the rumor of an island that disappeared in the 19th century in Singapore harbor. Through a collective search, the island is re-imagined in the complexities of the present.
Sunset House: The House as Language of Being
2010-2020
This artwork is built together with the community from a former community center on the island of Shodo. During artistic production, words have been integrated into the structure of the walls and stone garden.
From Stone to Sand
2017
This participatory exhibit fills the gallery with stones that change each day of the exhibit according to different patterns of “flow” derived from Yame and Fukuoka. The unique time and space of each place determined the pathways in this historical art space which has seen diverse utility over the past century. The metaphor of “from stone to sand” opens a new perspective on time that is informed by the layers which support our everyday life in between one place and another.
Eight Layers of Dirt
2016
This work is composed of interviews with eight women, four of whom live in Fukuoka and four who live in Yame. The artist spoke with each of the women about their life stories, focusing on the complicated relationship they each have with the place they live. As these conversations unfold, the spirit of each place gradually comes into view from the ground up. The unique stories collected here provide a glimpse at the current layers of the land seen through the eyes of eight strong women.
Dalat Window
Cu Chi Window
2014
Dirt is a part of us. Just as our body is composed of cells, organs and systems—so too is the earth. This fragile earth supports our life, yet we often separate ourselves from it. Art provides one method for healing our fractured relationship with the land we inhabit. It gives us a glimpse into a window of earth, where the possibility to rediscover ourselves inside the beautiful dirt exists.
Solvitur Ambulando
2013
“Is the wider Pacific Ocean a boundless space—inviting anyone to navigate it freely, its definition open to negotiation? Or is it a fragmented entity; isolated by its own terrain, privatized bodies of water, and imagined territories? It is unknown until we make the journey ourselves.”
Yaho!
2013
What would the earth say if we took a moment to listen? Attempts to hear the earth open the possibility for local residents in two cities, Busan and Tokyo, to remember that which has been removed, hidden or covered in the layers of the ground.