exhibitions
Kei Ito: Staring at the Face of the Sun January 27 – July 14, 2024
Kei Ito uses photography to examine the intergenerational trauma of nuclear disaster and the possibilities of healing and reconciliation.
Ito’s grandfather, who survived the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, described the day as if there were “hundreds of suns lighting up the sky.” Ito uses camera-less techniques, exposing light-sensitive material to sunlight for the length of a single breath. In this way, he ties the invisi- bility of radiation (whether from the sun or nuclear weaponry) to the life-breath of the human body. Ito’s work also connects nuclear war’s impact abroad to the effects of nuclear testing on “down - winders” on the American continent. As a result, he poignantly underscores our collective inheri- tance in the nuclear age, as both the attacker and the attacked suffer at an apocalyptic, global scale.
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Curator: Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, George Putnam Curator of American Art, Peabody Essex Museum
Sponsors: Funding made possible by the Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation, with additional support from the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art and Sara and John Shlesinger
An installation photograph by Kei Ito (b. 1991) showing the artist lying next to his “R_st in Peace: Little Boy,” 2024.
Kei Ito (b. 1991), “Archive of Last Wishes,” 2022 – 24. Glass jars with various oils and honey, memorabilia/artifacts, C-prints. Installation photograph by the artist.
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