Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on November 2012

Okinawa native Chikako Yamashiro examines her prefecture’s difficult history in “40 Years After Reversion: Video Work Poetically Re-examining Okinawa Today.” The 36-year-old artist employs video and photography in mixed-media installations that hint at Okinawans’ subjugation to the security demands of the US and Japan following World War II. Among the works presented is a recent video piece that blends fiction and reality in telling the story of a woman who runs a meat shop at a black market on one of the island prefecture’s many US military bases.

Mori Art Museum, until Mar 31