Keiko SasaokaPark City

From the text for the book by Shino Kuraishi:
In the same spirit with which atom-bombed documents continue to be added to and exhibited within the archive, efforts are made to collect oral documents related to the memories of the atom bombing. Reading some of these documents, which ought to be handed down to the next generations, I am always struck by the fact that many of the survivors had become ‘emotionless.’ Their testimonies tell us: they lost themselves, became absent-minded, apathetic, were at a loss, numb, felt nothing, had almost no feelings, were turned emotionless, paralyzed, impassive, walked by indifferently, etc. . . . Not that Sasaoka’s PARK CITY operates under the weight of these testimonies or attempts to understand them. Nevertheless, it is certain that her work is tied to these testimonies. In her photographs, both the tourists walking through the park or visiting the Museum, and the inhabitants of the city appear bored and aimless. In order to deal with these extraordinary memories, the persistence of the enduring boredom
and aimlessness that is so common in our daily lives is essential. Whether they be night views of the park, where the human figures merge into the darkness, or deserted daylight scenes seen at the beginning of the book, these images will guide us in the practice of the persistence of boredom and aimlessness. Not until this persistence is attained will we be able to begin our approach towards the extreme conditions of detachment; the situation survivors were forced to experience. Sasaoka’s work is an
incomparable achievement that has the “intensity of boredom.” It quietly points to a rugged path of remembrance that leads us toward the dead