False Food and Legacy
by Paula Tognarelli, Executive Director and Curator
Griffin Museum of Photography
April 5, 2015
Jerry Takigawa doesn’t hit us over the head with preachy dialogue on the perils of plastics pollution in the artworks of “False Food.” Rather, he connects us with the issue more subtly. Through their quiet cadence, Takigawa’s photographs provoke further enquiry into the context of the source materials used. What a paradox it is to discover that such beauty points to the devastation of our oceans caused by industrial civilization. The photographs of “False Food” communicate a sense of preciousness as art objects, as well as articulating the dearness of our natural resources.
It is the Monterey Bay Aquarium that provides Takigawa with the plastic fragments he overlays on his photographs. These objects lead us to a backstory taking place in the North Pacific Ocean and in other water masses across the planet. The story gives us reason for universal pause.
The Backstory
In the span of ocean water that links Asia and the west coast of North America, a highway of marine debris circulates in rotating currents called gyres. The Western Garbage Patch is situated near Japan and the Eastern Garbage Patch is found between Hawaii and California. The North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone links the two garbage vortices moving trash along in a clock-wise direction. Ninety percent of all the floating rubbish here is plastic. Eighty percent of the trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from the mainlands of Asia and North America. Twenty percent of the debris comes from marine activity.[i]
Midway Atoll, is one of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands located almost equidistant between Asia and the United States. It is located within the Pacific Trash Vortex. The island consists of 2.4 square miles of land and is home to many varieties of seabirds including 1.5 million Laysan Albatrosses.[ii] The albatross flies many miles looking for food for their chicks. Bright colored floating plastics found at the water’s surface are mistaken for marine food and fed to the young. In addition every year over twenty tons of plastic debris washes ashore on Midway Atoll.[iii] Albatross chicks consume five tons of plastic each year causing death to one third of them.[iv]
The plastic provided to Takigawa by the Monterey Bay Aquarium was removed from the remains of albatrosses found on Midway Atoll. But the albatross is not the only victim here. Microbeads and shards of plastic are fast becoming the food source for all ocean wildlife. The marine debris affects jellyfish, plankton, algae, monk seals and sea turtles.[v] Small fish eat jellyfish and larger fish consume small fish. We consume the large fish. Jerry Takigawa says that “Everything you throw away, literally you end up consuming, either in the air, the water or your food. It comes back.”[vi]
How will it end for us?
Dianna Parker from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States Department of Commerce’s (NOAA) Marine Debris Program is hopeful. She says that we have caused the problem and we can solve the problem by changing our daily habits.[vii] The cleanup effort seems massive, however. NOAA has cited that it would take “67 ships one year to clean up one percent of the North Pacific Ocean.”[viii]
It is ironic that plastic was invented in the 1860’s as a means to save elephants.[ix] The invention of plastic as a substitute for ivory saved thousands of elephants from being killed for the manufacture of billiard balls. It was an altruistic act gone terribly awry.
Heritage and Legacy
Midway Atoll may have cultural significance for Jerry Takigawa aside from being at the epicenter of “False Food.” Its location held sizeable importance to the U.S. military as a lookout point of protection for the western coast of the United States during World War II. Under attack on several occasions by the Japanese, a naval battle ensued on June 4, 1942 near Midway Atoll that resulted in Japan losing hold of the Pacific waters. Six months earlier after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the majority of Japanese-Americans were forced out of their homes on the entire west coast and relocated into temporary, relocation or detention camps. The reasons cited were that “ethnic Japanese” posed a loyalty risk and were “totally unassimilable.” Ironically persons who were 1/16 Japanese were eligible for internment. Seven months before the end of World War II in Asia, in January 1945 detainees were released. Eventually it was determined by the Office of Naval Intelligence that the Japanese-American relocation efforts were totally unnecessary and motivated primarily by racial prejudice.[x]
Jerry Takigawa is a third generation Japanese-American whose parents were interned.[xi] In his artwork we experience the elements that seem most important to him. We see his desire for connection to his family, his belief system, a sense of harmony with others and a deep respect for the earth itself. We also find an aesthetic that is rooted both in his Japanese and American heritage. Using old family photos and cultural artifacts as the backdrop to many of his photographs he synchronizes the memories of the past and binds them with the present and future. He seems to say that we are an amalgam of experiences, cultures, perceptions and memories that interconnect across time. We have a need for those who came before us and we have a responsibility to those who come after us. What will we bring to future generations is what I think Takigawa is asking us in his photographs. Simply, this is legacy.
The Griffin Museum of Photography is honored to host Jerry Takigawa’s “False Food” in exhibition. We hope the photographs bring enjoyment to our public as well as spark awareness and dialogue on how to change the course of an increasing environmental degradation. In addition it is our hope to encourage further thinking on legacy and what that means after viewing our exhibitions.
