AND, WHERE DID THE PEACOCKS GO? - MIHO KAJIOKA
by Michele Amaglio
12.01.2016

Japanese artist Miho Kajioka skillfully creates suggestive images through alternative printing methods in the darkroom. Her images evoke a sense of mystery and nostalgia in her constant search for beauty within the ruin.

Formerly a painting student in the United States, Miho Kajioka returned to Japan to undertake a journalistic career, abandoning her artistic research for many years. The Tōhoku earthquake in 2011 and the Fukushima disaster awoke in her the need to return to her territory, not only geographically; her return home has also been a return to the artistic field. In And, where the peacocks go? photography becomes an important tool of visual research and of beauty within ruin.

“Right after the Fukushima accident, I discovered a blog which mentioned abandoned peacocks inside the 20km evacuation area. I tried to imagine these peacocks walking freely in abandoned cities, with their beautiful tails.”

The desolation of the disrupted landscape pushed the artist to wonder in search for beauty and hope within the abandoned land. From peacocks –  the new masters of the ghost-cities along the Japanese coast – to withered sunflowers, nature subtly and gently takes over.