“The Focus” is a video work primarily composed of images rephotographed from old photography books. The images of volcanoes, mountain ranges, and nomadic people, interwoven with text by HAYAMA herself, are loosely inspired by Nathaniel HAWTHORNE’s short story “Earth’s Holocaust” (1844). In this short story, HAWTHORNE depicts people gathering around a massive bonfire to incinerate all cultural products created by humanity, along with a conversation between two men facing this scene. ”The Focus” parallels and extends this narrative, suggesting that even when letting go of their own creations, human consciousness cannot stop generating and exploring meaning, as implied through sustained tones and the moiré patterns of film and printed materials.

In this exhibition, alongside “The Focus,” a video work “Inaudible Footsteps,” which uses images rephotographed from old books dealing with geology, folklore, and space science, is displayed. Additionally, “Reportage !,” a one-minute film capturing the burning of a modern, typical house made of paper, is shown. This work is filmed with a hand-crank camera, inspired by the early films of the Lumière brothers, known as the “Fathers of Cinema.”

HAYAMA draws traces of distant times and spaces, such as photographs and printed materials, into the “here and now,” integrating creations and imaginative elements with “the reality of nature.” Through this process, she brings to light the existence of human stories suspended in the time of the macrocosmos.

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