Imperial Memories: Memorial Garden 1. 2010
Edition 2/8
Archival pigment print
15 3/4″ x 14 1/8″
Courtesy of the Artist and Angles Gallery, Los Angeles
Imperial Memories: Memorial Garden 2. 2010.
Edition 2/8.
Archival pigment print.
14 1/2” x 15 3/4”.
Courtesy of the Artist and Angles Gallery, Los Angeles.
Japanese cherry blossoms only bloom for two weeks, yet they are resilient, able even to root in the radioactive soil of Hiroshima. The Buddhists regard them as signs of life’s transience. During World War II, they became the symbol of kamikaze pilots, falling prematurely from the branch. In these works, as the background of the night sky seems poised to consume the buds, and the stray branches are but faded and weary strokes, we confront the somber truths of these cultural and historical associations, and the phantom of trauma emerges.
–Caleb Bissinger ’13
Gund Gallery Associate
