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| Harbour at Ishinomaki - photo Reuters |
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| Peter Doig - Ski Jacket (detail), 1994, oil on canvas, 295x351cm |
A year ago a triple catastrophe hit the North-East coast of Japan. After the earthquake, after the tsunami, there was, and still is, the ongoing nuclear disaster in Fukushima.
In the days and weeks directly following, a stream of images came to us by television, printed media and internet. As disturbing and shocking these images were, they were fascinating at the same time. In a way one couldn't stop looking at those horrific pictures and videos. Probably because the sheer force of nature would leave us paralyzed and in awe... Somehow it was just unimaginable that this would happen in real life; one catastrophe would follow another, and another. Something you would only know from apocalyptic films, now happened in real time on our computer and TV screens. I remember the images of the black tsunami swapping over a boardwalk, swallowing cars, busses, basically everything that was on its path.
At the time I happened to be researching paintings of
Peter Doig (b. 1959), a critically acclaimed (and commercially successful) contemporary artist. I love his work for the colours, the layers, the structures, their space and the often eery atmosphere. Although Doig's work is often inspired by the landscapes of his youth, Canada, and by his current place of living, Trinidad; and although he has been painting such sceneries since the early 1990's, it struck me that many of the images from the Fukushima disaster looked like Doig paintings having come alive.
At first I thought this might be chance. But when I started looking at more photos and putting them alongside Doig's paintings, I was intrigued by the many parallels. That is when I prepared this blog post.
Still, it felt perverse to look at disaster pictures in an aesthetical way, where the catastrophy was still unfolding. At that point, a year ago, I decided not to publish it.
Now, a year later, looking back at those same images and the media picking up on it once again, it seems relevant to post it at last. This time it is shocking to realize how much we have gotten used to the imagery. It must be the inflation effect of the ongoing stream of media images that we encounter every day. A friend compared it to pornography; the pornography of disaster. One is hooked, thrilled, at times disgustedly intrigued, shamefully exited, but it also leaves you numb after a while.
This hardly ever happens to me when looking at art.
[For slide show click photos to enlarge]
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| Ferry swept on roof top by tsunami - photo AP |
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| Peter Doig - Okahumkee (Some other peoples blues), 1990, 203x240cm, oil on canvas, Kunsthalle zu Kiel |
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| Ruins in the city of Kesennuma - photo Reuters |
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| Peter Doig - Briey (Concrete Cabin), 1994-6, oil on canvas, 277x188cm |
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| Sports ground in the Iwate prefecture - photo Reuters |
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| Peter Doig - The Heart of Old San Juan, 1999, oil on canvas, 250x195.5cm |
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| Peter Doig - Red Boat (Imaginary Boys), 2004, oil on canvas, 200x186cm |
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| Rescue workers discovered a man who had been swept out into the Pacific Ocean - photo AP / Defense Ministry |
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| Peter Doig - Lunker, 1995, oil on canvas, 200x266cm |
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| Peter Doig - The House that Jack Built, 1992, oil on canvas, 200x250cm |
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| In the destroyed city of Natori a survivor stands on the ruins of his home - photo DPA |
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| Peter Doig - Red House, 1995-96, oil on canvas, 200x275 |
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| photo AP / Kyodo News via Spiegel.de |
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| Houses swept by a tsunami smoulder near Sendai Airport in Japan - photo Reuters |
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| Peter Doig - Swamped, 1990, oil on canvas, 197x241cm |
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| Sendai Airport - photo Reuters / Kyodo |
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| Peter Doig - White Canoe, 1990-1, oil on canvas, 200.5 x 243cm |
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| Houses in Sendai in the Miyagi prefecture - photo AP / Kyodo |
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| Peter Doig - Jetty,1994, oil on canvas, 200x248cm |
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| photo Reuters via Spiegel.de |
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| Peter Doig - Pink Snow, 1991 -oil on canvas, 243.5x198cm |
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| Peter Doig - White Creep, oil on canvas, 290 x 199cm |
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| photo AFP |
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| Peter Doig - Saint Anton (Flat Light), 1995-96, oil on canvas, 275x275cm |
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| Photo AP |
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| Peter Doig - The Architects Home in the Ravine, oil on canvas, 200 x 275cm |
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| The damaged roof of reactor number No. 1 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant - Reuters |
+1995,+oil+on+canvas+-+40.6x30.5cm.jpg) |
| Peter-Doig - Bird House (small) 1995, oil on canvas - 40.6x30.5cm |
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| Wohngebiet in Sendai - Reuters |
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| Peter Doig - Camp Forestia, 1996, oil on canvas, 170x170cm |
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| photo Reuters |
,+1994,+oil+on+canvas.jpg) |
| Peter Doig - Pine House (Rooms for Rent), 1994, oil on canvas |
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| Peter Doig - Lapeyrouse Wall, 2004, oil on canvas, 200x250.5cm |
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| A man looks over the area submerged in water from the tsunami in Soma - AP Kyodo News |
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| Peter Doig - Almost Grown, 2000, oil on canvas, 200x295cm |
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| An almost surreal sight in Shiogama, Miyagi prefecture - DPA |
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| Peter Doig - Baked, 1990, oil on canvas, 182x235cm |
All paintings © Peter Doig
All photos via internet, march 2011
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