Nishiaizu international art village RESIDENCY | november 2025
Nishiaizu is located 120km from the site of the Fukushima disaster of 2011 and has an economy dependent on local agriculture and forestry. This site was chosen due to the local area's focus on rehabilitation, traditional environmental and agricultural practices and the revitalisation of the depopulated community through cultural exchange. More about NIAV can be found here.
This three week residency provided us with the opportunity to work intensively together for a number of weeks and refine our processes of weaving together site and sound to create one harmonious work.
Guided by conversations with the local community and by experiencing the rhythm of the region, we sought to understand the essence of place as Australians observing and learning from the Japanese countryside. These experiences unfolded as soundscapes shaped by local field recordings, piano and violin compositions, and twenty one abstract works in oil pastels.
The residency culminated in an exhibition titled THREES. The exhibition examines the ongoing search for balance, harmony and completeness between humans and the landscapes that surround and sustain us, three themes that quietly shape the title.
Special thanks to the wonderful team at NIAV and to the endlessly talented Nao Nakazawa for performing violin, recording and videography.
We are deeply grateful to everyone who offered their stories and their time, we hope you feel the presence of community in the final works.
THREES will be on display at NIAV through to 15 March 2026.
THE WORKS
The works draw on three recurring colours found in the November landscape, the red foliage, umber earth and the enduring green of the forest and rice fields each forming part of a measured, three-part response to the environment and its shifting seasons. The hero work in each theme is presented to the right.
21 total works were created to form the visual element of the exhibition, 7 in each theme.
Close up videography of the artworks was captured by local Nishiaizu resident Nao Nakazawa and projected behind the hanging artworks as part of the final exhibition. The recorded compositions and projections form one continuous looped work.
Projected and recorded works.