2025, Inkjet print, diorama clay, styrene board, etc.
Rotary snowplows and dump trucks clearing and transporting snow bear a resemblance to harvesters gathering grass in open fields. The agricultural land, divided into long strips to accommodate heavy machinery, evokes the image of a planned city where straight roads intersect in a grid.
This similarity between the landscapes created by humans and machines may well reflect the social characteristics of the land.
Focusing on the machinery, human activity, and the shape of the land, I used public documents from the City of Sapporo and photographs of farmland taken by Hokkaido government agricultural officials—available online as free-use materials—and inverted the green areas to white. For those living in cities with heavy snowfall, the resulting images might easily be mistaken for scenes of snow removal.
Photo: Tsuyoshi Asakura
Photo: Tsuyoshi Asakura
Photo: Tsuyoshi Asakura
Exhibition:
“yukidokeru” Sapporo Odori 500-m Underground Walkway Gallery
Work Image credits:
Central lower wall:
Sapporo City Archives
All other wall images:
“Real Materials of Agriculture and Rural Areas: Livestock Photography Collection”
Department of Agricultural Policy, Hokkaido Government
https://www.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/ns/nsi/real/chikusan.html
Floor:
“A Glimpse of History, ca. 1960 – 100 Years of Flood Control”
Sapporo Development and Construction Department, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Hokkaido Regional Development Bureau
https://www.hkd.mlit.go.jp/sp/kasen_keikaku/e9fjd60000000laj.html
Last accessed: January 8, 2025