Wreck Log

The Shipwreck Record by Natsumi Aoyagi is a book based on her solo exhibition of the same name, held primarily at Towada Art Center's satellite venue "space" in 2022. It features works and texts that revolve around ships, movement, faith, and records, using Mazu, the goddess of the sea, as a guiding thread.

Through works titled "Shipwreck Record," "Sea Goddess," "Log," "Light," "Utopia," "Landing," "Salty Dog," and "Butterfly," among others, this book explores how things that are not actually present or visible can be recorded and imagined. Aoyagi's own writing frames ships as "relationships," expanding her gaze to the connections between voyages and nations, trade, faith, and narratives.

The exhibition was displayed not only within the museum but also in multiple locations throughout Towada City, including a florist, hot springs, bars, and snack bars. In his contributed essay "I Want to Take You With Me," Chihiro Minato likens the experience of巡游ing these various locations to a sea route or pilgrimage, describing how the artworks and the daily life of the city temporarily intertwine.

This book is compiled like a single logbook, encompassing video, text, locations, and even the people and objects that inhabit them.

[Title] 亡船記 (Bōsenki)
[Publisher] Towada Art Center
[Publication Date] 2023
[Page Count] 64 pages
[Size] Approx. 183 x 238 x 6mm / 206g
[Format] Softcover
[Language] Japanese
[Title Reading] BOUSENKI
[Author/Editor, etc.] Aoyagi Natsumi / Author, Minato Chihiro / Text, Toyama Yuma / Text, Wada Shintaro / Document Direction, Yanagawa Tomoyuki / Design
[Printing/Binding] Yamada Shashin Seihanjo / Printing
[ISBN] 9784991036767
[Condition] Used [5] Good (Spine faded)
[Accessories] -
[Featured In] -
[Related Exhibition] "Natsumi Aoyagi: The Shipwreck Record" Towada Art Center, September 17 - December 18, 2022

Natsumi Aoyagi

Born in Tokyo in 1990, Natsumi Aoyagi is an artist.

She completed her master's degree in Media Art at Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Film and New Media, in 2016. Observing the growth processes of insects, people around her, plants, and landscapes, she explores how to express them without being confined by recording media or specific formats.

Through extensive research and fieldwork, her work centers on the possibility of allowing viewers to directly experience what she herself sees, and their realization of the impossibility of that experience.

Recent activities include "TWO PRIVATE ROOMS - Reciprocal Reading" and "Proposal for 'New Growth': Arts Project to Create a Post-COVID Society." Her books include the novel "Fujimi-ro Hachi" and the poetry collection "Calendar Stories for You Waiting at Home."

She presides over the practitioner collective "kohon-ya honkbooks" and also works under the name "Datsuo."

< Related Figures >

Datsuo
Towada Art Center
Chihiro Minato
Yuma Toyama
kohon-ya honkbooks