10 Oct 2021

Fiona Amundsen's installation at the Tokyo Biennale

From Standing Room Only, 1:31 pm on 10 October 2021

Fiona Amundsen & Hiroshi Nakatsuji with Haruyo Nihei, Our Remaining Breath, installed as part of the Tokyo Biennale at Miraiteiban Kenkyu-Jyo, Tokyo, 2021.

Associate Professor Fiona Amundsen

Site of Tokyo exhibition: Photograph by Tada（YUKAI) (2)

Photograph by Tada（YUKAI)

Fiona Amundsen & Tim Corballis, Human Hand (install view) at The Dowse Art Museum, Wellington, 2020. (Photo by Shaun Matthews)

Fiona Amundsen & Kanariya Eishi, An Ordinary Life, installed as part of Thing that Shape Us, Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch, 2021.

Fiona Amundsen with Fuyuko Akiyoshi, Kayoko Ebina, Ben Kuroki, Nobuyoshi Maehira, Asumi Mizuo, Teruo Murakami, Michiko Uehara and Mami Yamada, A Body that Lives, installed as part of the 2021 Walter’s Prize, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, 2021. (Photo Jennifer French)

Japan's imperial war efforts and sense of nationalism are explored in an installation called Our Remaining Breath, that's representing Aotearoa at the Tokyo Biennale.

Kiwi artist Fiona Amundsen has spent several years creating Our Remaining Breath in collaboration with Japanese artists. Her research including recording the testimonies of Japanese people who lived through the Second World War.

The soundtrack on the video component of the work also includes the sound of Fiona breathing while doing aikido training, a martial art she has trained in for many years.

AUT Associate Professor Fiona tells Lynn Freeman that the pandemic has meant she's had to pivot like crazy to complete the work, and it also prevented her from getting to Tokyo for the opening.

Associate Professor Fiona Amundsen's collaborative exhibition Our Remaining Breath is on show at the Tokyo Biennale.