Urban Scab

"Urban Scab."

I create artworks by cutting images I have taken into rectangles and superimposing them on photographs.

This series of works, "Urban Scab," was taken on my way to my parents' house from a small train station in the suburbs.

Fuji City, my hometown, is lined with paper mills that use the abundant spring water from Mt Fuji.

The factories discharge polluted water into the ocean and chemical fumes waft from their chimneys.

The biggest problem with pollution is that it is invisible to the eye.

As Japan has modernized its industry, it has been plagued by serious pollution that is invisible to the eye.

Pollution is the scar of the city.

There are invisible scars of pollution in the city.

It may take some time, but eventually the scars will scab over and be reborn as new skin.

Through the act of cutting and layering photographic fragments, I hope to add a "scab" to the landscape of polluted cities.