The Gray Sea
Japan, with its constant ebb and flow of people in bustling cities, was once referred to as “a safe country.” But in recent years, we feel insecure in crowded shopping areas because of random and impulsive attacks that have frequently occurred. Thus, it has become difficult for us today to make a black-and-white decision about whether an unknown person can be trusted—that is, there is “a sea of people in the gray area” in our cities. If you were to find out that images of terrorists are mixed in the crowds of human figures in this work, how would you look at each of those figures? What sort of outer appearance would you consider to be suspicious?
(Among the panels with printed photos of human figures in this installation, three are of criminals who were in the news as attackers in the simultaneous London bombings in 2005.)
Nishi-Kawaguchi project
Kawaguchi in Saitama Prefecture is a foreign-resident concentrated city, particularly in the Nishi-kawaguchi area. After most of the two-hundred facilities for adult entertainment had pulled out from that area in the mid-2000s, the town tried to change its image. Maruyama created two works in a space where the furnishings of such an adult establishment had been cleared away. Her works incorporated the sights of Nishi-kawaguchi via the windows of that space.