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<                           >
 PISTACHIOS AND SPARROWS 
Picture

In 2008 I was having a show in Hiroshima having just been to the Greek Island of Santorini. With no prior intent, I took a bag of Pistachio nuts from Greece to Japan. I was idly feeding some sparrows in the famous A-Bomb Dome when an odd connective thought came to me.

The Minoan volcanic eruption on Santorini was the largest natural explosion ever witnessed by man and at the time, Hiroshima the largest “man-made” explosion. Both places had been stripped of all natural flora and fauna. In feeding the sparrows I was unwittingly feeding the “Returned Life” of Santorini (nuts) to the “Returned life” of Hiroshima (Sparrows). 

It seems I’m not alone in these sparrows being a muse. The Japanese musician Harumi Yamamoto recently composed a musical piece called “Hiroshima Sparrow” based on an A-Bomb survivor who gained great solace by coming to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park every morning to feed the sparrows. He said it was his way of atonement for what he did to the sparrows when he was a boy. It’s a nice tale, although I think he was being a bit hard on himself for taking any blame at all!

As for the nuts; I left my own small symbol of atonement on the wall and watched them being lifted away into the shell of the A-Bomb dome. Maybe I'll include this idea in a show one day.



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<                              >

  • HOME
  • About Andy
  • CONTACT
  • Cityscapes
    • L.A. From the Hills
    • London Bridge to Shooter's Hill
    • Edgware Road
    • Sydney
    • Sakuta
    • Dog Walker, Tokyo
    • Twilight Osaka
    • Cherry Blossoms, Tokyo
    • Vertigo
    • Osaka City
    • Tokyo Station
    • Tokyo Umbrellas
  • Geisha Series
    • Behind the Kimono Book Forward
    • Tokyo Time
    • Osaka Time
    • Resurrection
    • Noh to Ganguro
    • Neon Nihon
    • Sakuhin
    • Cameo
    • The Three Mystic Apes
    • See no Evil
    • Hear No Evil
    • Speak no Evil
    • Hanami
    • Stardust
    • Static
    • Skulls, Cars, Gods and Stars
    • A Winter's Tale
    • Tea With Andy
    • Cityscapes Book
  • Identity Tales
    • The Grim Reaper's Game Keeper
    • Paradise Lost Series
    • Pistachios and Sparrows
    • Opening Japan
    • Dem Bones
    • Van Gogh on Expressionism
    • In Another Universe
    • Otaku Hive
    • After the Bubble
    • Imagined Spaces
    • Isolation
    • Cubist Thoughts >
      • Four Up
      • The Artist's House
      • The House We Live In
      • Plans for Simon
    • Last Train Home
  • Lockdown Walks
    • Foundlings
    • Oddments
    • Lockdown Videos
    • Lockdown Light
    • Wildlife
    • Lockdown Poems
    • Urban Philosophers
  • ESSAYS
    • Andy Warhol
    • Bubble Artists of Japan
    • Who are the Hikikomori?
    • Christiania
  • Photography
    • Cityscapes
    • Gardens
    • Aquarium