At Frieze London this weekend, the exhibition buzzing on everyone's lips was the United Brothers' witty live performance, Does This Soup Taste Ambivalent? Brothers Ei and Tomoo Arakawa, along with their mother, made soup using vegetables flown in from Fukushima, Japan, site of a nuclear power plant disaster, at Green Tea Gallery's booth. Would guests' lips literally be buzzing if they ate the soup? Well, no—yet many were still ambivalent about the prospect, precisely the psychological experience the Arakawas intended to provoke.
It has been three years since the tragic tsunami hit Fukushima shores and destroyed reactors in the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, causing a radioactive leakage that is second to that of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Though there has been no recorded radioactive-related fatalities since the disaster, and the vegetables used in this piece were certified safe by the Japanese Farmers Association, there is obviously still a psychological block in the participants. Even the co-founder of the fair, Matthew Slotover, was skeptical about eating it.
“I think one fifth of the audience came to our booth without knowing what kind of free soup it was,” the brothers told us. "The sort of art goers who rush from one booth to another.” On Saturday when this writer visited, Frieze was indeed a chaotic rampage of art students, affluent middle-age couples draped in furs and Gucci glasses led by gallery girls with smart haircuts, and tourists that taking selfies in front of KAWS installations and anything with LED lettering on it. “I wish they spent more time figuring out what this project is about, or what kind of risk [or] if there is any.”
Still, the live event wasn't overshadowed. At 1 PM, a small group gathered around the booth, eager to try this free soup (whether or not they knew what was in it). Tentatively, we tried some, too. In the end, the Shiitake mushroom and daikon soup was so delicious that we gulped the whole thing down. “My mother brought [the ingredients] from our neighborhood, which is 60 km south of the power plant. The contamination of food varies depending on the part of Fukushima,” Ei explained when asked about the ingredients the next day via email. Reading, our stomachs gave a small protest. “Anyway,” he added, “They restrict the distribution if there are radio activity on the food.” Phew.
Ei answers our questions on the fascinating project below.
GRACE WANG: Could you please describe your personal relationship and experiences with the Fukushima Daiishi nuclear disaster in 2011?
EI ARAKAWA: In the days after March 11, 2011, I went crazy checking the minute-by-minute media updates of new information. It was a very abstract experience, with coverage of the event being so saturated. I was in Kyoto, and my family was in Iwaki, Fukushima. I had to persuade them to evacuate immediately when I found out about the possible explosion. I forgot if it was before or after the first explosion. I think it was before.
What ideas did you want to explore in this performance?
I didn't want to offer so-called "YES" soup to the people, in the way some politicians or civil organizations would do to simply promote food from Fukushima [in the wake of the disaster]. I thought this approach would exclude the people who disagree that food from Fukushima is safe. I came up with the "ambivalent" position in order to create a platform for both, opposing sides, as well as the middle
It has been three years since the tragic tsunami hit Fukushima shores and destroyed reactors in the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, causing a radioactive leakage that is second to that of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Though there has been no recorded radioactive-related fatalities since the disaster, and the vegetables used in this piece were certified safe by the Japanese Farmers Association, there is obviously still a psychological block in the participants. Even the co-founder of the fair, Matthew Slotover, was skeptical about eating it.
“I think one fifth of the audience came to our booth without knowing what kind of free soup it was,” the brothers told us. "The sort of art goers who rush from one booth to another.” On Saturday when this writer visited, Frieze was indeed a chaotic rampage of art students, affluent middle-age couples draped in furs and Gucci glasses led by gallery girls with smart haircuts, and tourists that taking selfies in front of KAWS installations and anything with LED lettering on it. “I wish they spent more time figuring out what this project is about, or what kind of risk [or] if there is any.”
Still, the live event wasn't overshadowed. At 1 PM, a small group gathered around the booth, eager to try this free soup (whether or not they knew what was in it). Tentatively, we tried some, too. In the end, the Shiitake mushroom and daikon soup was so delicious that we gulped the whole thing down. “My mother brought [the ingredients] from our neighborhood, which is 60 km south of the power plant. The contamination of food varies depending on the part of Fukushima,” Ei explained when asked about the ingredients the next day via email. Reading, our stomachs gave a small protest. “Anyway,” he added, “They restrict the distribution if there are radio activity on the food.” Phew.
Ei answers our questions on the fascinating project below.
GRACE WANG: Could you please describe your personal relationship and experiences with the Fukushima Daiishi nuclear disaster in 2011?
EI ARAKAWA: In the days after March 11, 2011, I went crazy checking the minute-by-minute media updates of new information. It was a very abstract experience, with coverage of the event being so saturated. I was in Kyoto, and my family was in Iwaki, Fukushima. I had to persuade them to evacuate immediately when I found out about the possible explosion. I forgot if it was before or after the first explosion. I think it was before.
What ideas did you want to explore in this performance?
I didn't want to offer so-called "YES" soup to the people, in the way some politicians or civil organizations would do to simply promote food from Fukushima [in the wake of the disaster]. I thought this approach would exclude the people who disagree that food from Fukushima is safe. I came up with the "ambivalent" position in order to create a platform for both, opposing sides, as well as the middle