Immediately after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, Fukushima- based poet Wago Ryoichi began posting a series of poems on Twitter. “It’s raining radiation. It’s a quiet night.” “Today is the sixth day. My way of looking at and thinking about things has changed.” “For what reason does life get born and die? What right governs birth and death, and brings about destruction and rebirth?” (March 16, 2011). Subsequently, Wago continued to make statements pondering the state of Japan and his hometown, which he later compiled into the book Pebbles of Poetry (2011).

Many people around the world must have been aware of how our “way of looking at and thinking about things changed” when our daily lives were shaken to their very foundations or threatened in this way, even in the wake of a pandemic. Wago has spoken out actively in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake, COVID-19, and the invasion of Ukraine. These activities demonstrate the power of words and the art of poetry through the actions of a poet.

This exhibition features Pebbles of Poetry, which was published as a kind of status report from the front lines of the disaster area at the time of the Fukushima disaster; Ladder, a reconstruction of Pebbles of Poetry, penned from the time that a state of emergency was declared in April 2020 due to COVID-19 until August that same year; and Shelter, a collection of correspondence between Wago and artist Olia Fedorova, who has been writing and recording videos while taking refuge at a shelter in Kharkiv since the Russian invasion of Ukraine – texts that came to life on Twitter from three different times and places. From these condensed words, we can well imagine how both Wago and Fedorova have tried to live through the adversity of their respective present moments.

Wago has also been calling for collaborations with other writers and artists working with poetry other than himself on the timeline of his Twitter, his chosen platform of expression. In this exhibition, he has also created a platform, #Love Pebble, in which the general public can participate for the duration of the exhibition – an experiment in the joint transmission of a large, unspecified number of voices, akin to a sort of “verbal demonstration.”

Selected Works & Awards

2019

Hagiwara Sakutaro Award, Japan

2017

Foreign-language poetry category of the inaugural Prix de Poesie de la Revue Nunc, France

2011

Pebbles of Poetry, Tokuma Shoten

2006

Bansui Prize, Japan

1998

Nakahara Chūya Prize, Japan

• Installation view/Peformance at Aichi Triennale 2022
• Pebbles of poetry 2022, 2011-2022
• Photo: ToLoLo studio

Exhibition

Exhibition