Megumi Fukuda

In 2006 I started working with found objects—mostly books that people left in the streets—in Berlin where I live. I also began thinking about old furniture, large appliances, and other unwanted objects that people discard, which are products of the cycle of consumption in everyday life. This process follows the cycle of human life, revealing personal relationships, traditions, cultures, and histories of people and places.

For my project at Künstler- und Stipendiatenhaus des Altmarkkreises in Salzwedel, Germany, I use discarded electrical appliances, such as a lamp, mixer, fan, printer, and radio, among other things. These forgotten devices are connected to solar panels outside of the installation space and are re-animated by sunlight instead of battery power or electricity from the grid.

After the nuclear powerplant disaster in Fukushima, people have begun to think about energy more than ever before. I cannot stop thinking about it, especially in relation to the history of my home city of Hiroshima. Ironically, a natural disaster caused a man-made disaster, leading many to realize that we had produced another “atomic bomb” so close to our homes.

Through this project, I want to propose an experimental space and provide an opportunity to stimulate thinking about our system of electricity and the limitations of power we can produce.

Each day, the installation changes according to the weather, which is never stable. The objects may begin to move, make noises, harmonize like music. The result is a mechanical chorus, an orchestrated performance, telling stories about a larger history of the present through the individual memories of these devices. They start, stop, gradually or all at once. The installation becomes connected to the exterior world—not only reflecting changes in daily weather but also of the social and historical climate of our times.