Jigoku Series

4K Videos, various length loops, 2019

Jigoku, installation sketch, 4K Videos, 2019

Jigoku is a series of landscape videos of geothermal sites in Kyushu, Japan. Many of them are based in Beppu, a small town with over 2900 hot spring vents. Eight of these hot springs are renowned for the dramatic physical appearance and are named Jigoku, a Japanese word for “Hell.” Those included in the series are “Blood Hell” (Chinoike Jigoku), "Sea Hell" (Umi Jigoku), "White Pond Hell" (Shiraike Jigoku), and “Ghost Buddhist Monk Hell” (Oniishi Bozu Jigoku). Mount Aso, on the other hand, is the largest active volcano in Japan. With the influence of Animism and Buddhism, these locations have been regarded as sites of worship since the ancient time. The videos aim to capture the profound spiritual quality of the landscape, while contemplating on the relationship between change and perpetuity in a geological scale.