Hiroshima: After Aftermath Opening Ceremony, September 17 + Hiroshima at Night

After a 5-hour installation of an entire show, I learned that there was a formal ceremony for the openings at the Former Bank of Japan, including a ribbon cutting with white gloves and gold scissors and speeches! We finished installing at 2:45pm with the opening starting at 3. I ducked into the bathroom to remove my dirty clothes like superman and came out "dressed to kill," according to Michiko, ran downstairs just in time to run into Harper + Guthrie's International YMCA teachers from 2008 and for the crazy long ceremony in Japanese + Korean, a book reading, some opera.....I ducked out with my friends who had to leave early and went upstairs to talk to people about my work.....Here is the ribbon cutting ceremony. Steve Leeper, Chairman of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation and the man who helped me arrange this show, is in the white jacket.

Listening to people talk about their work - the 1st floor covered in banners painted by children from over 16 countries.

My "speech" with the beautfiul Michiko Yamane translating for me in front of a huge Korean banner.

Listening to a "nightingale" read the book without pictures.....

Press taking photos from the balcony

My shoes - thanks Madeleine for taking so many great photos with my camera and for all your invaluable help with Ian and Lily to get my show hung.

In the elevator with the flowers Sasha brought

Window latch in the 3rd floor bathroom / dressing room

The window at the entrance to my show - "reject" cyanotypes (of melted A-Bombed bottles, pliers, locks, clamps) stuck to the window for the opening night - now taken down.

Left wall of cyanotypes of Guthrie's hands and Harper's feet; eucalyptus bark from an A-Bombed tree, A-Bombed bottle....
Lily, Ian's 12 year old daughter whom everyone thought was between 15 - 18, teaching Steve Leeper how to make paper cranes with Ian in the background in the Sadako Sasaki room
Steve and Elizabeth Leeper eating Onigiri before the opening (rice stuffed with fish or pickled plum paste wrapped with crispy seaweed - oine of my favorite snacks in Japan) on the Emergency Exit steps in my room
Sasha and Yaki sensai - Guthrie + Harper's YMCA teachers in 2008!
Both walls and the first guests

Kiri and her friend + me before the opening
Guthrie's hands (cyanotype paper soaked in tannic acid bath) and Harper's feet
Antique baby dress from North Carolina and leaves from an A-Bombed Eucalyptus tree
My favorite wall in the show - THANKS IAN for figuring out how to hang it. I taped the broom and shovel and ladder panels together with archival mending tape and we clipped them with bulldog clips, hanging them with wire to the lip of the ceiling trim. Thanks to Tracy Spencer-Stonestreet for the use of her gorgeous orchard ladder, Mari + the Peace Museum for the shovel and broom.....2 of the new cyanotypes that worked: A-Bombe beer bottle with a big hole in it and fragments from the steel beam from the Peace Dome - architectural, dimensional
The banner squeezed into the stairwell as the other artists needed every inch of the balcony railing - THANKS LARRY for figuring out where and how to install it! And the lovely signs to direct people to the 3rd floor - THANKS KIRI for having this done for me by your very cool designer friends!
American orchard ladder + real Hiroshima ladder


Yukie Kamiya, Curator at the Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art listening to me explain something in full elin force

Suzuki, the man who designed my beautiful card for the show - ARIGATO!
Signs for the events and shows in the bank
Paper bag from Hiroshima University that had a great Hiroshima University cloth in it as a gift from Rebun Kayo, the Chair of the one-man committee to send A-Bombed roof tiles around the world
People at the opening: JoAnn, Michiko, Elizabeth, Steve + Suzuki

Sasha's boy Nakita saying good-bye
Michiko, JoAnn + Larry

Sasha, Nakita, me and Aki SensaiMe + Kiri, my most beautiful Japanese friend with whom I shopped and feasted and walked today with such fun pleasure. I hope she comes to visit us in Paris next summer.
My amazing sister Madeleine + me: I could not have done this show without her. She came from Hong Long with her partner Ian and his 12 year old daughter Lily who are visiting from New Zealand, to help me install and to celebrate. Ian installed all the long cyanotype panels on the old walls from the ceiling and he cleaned and remained calm the entire time. He reminds me of John Berger. Lily helped hang the banner and showed people how to make paper cranes all day. And Madeleine kept me focused and calm and helped every single minute of the 5 hours, hanging, cleaning, organizing, thinking, planning, designing, even bringing supplied from Hong Kong to help! I LOVE YOU MADELEINE.

Rebun and his friend from Hiroshima University with the cloth wrap they brought me

Madeleine's photo of Happy Me!
Madeleine's great photo of the lady at the front desk of the Bank
The flowers from Sasha with the ribbon I cut and the translation by Michiko of my short statement for the show
Hiroshima broom and the emergency exit steps
Eric Grant, David's colleague from RERF, who was all ready to help me rent walls or a truck, with his son Alex
Detail of the window
After a drunken dinner of sushi, tempura, cold soba and tons of Hiroshima sake, Toma's favorite, Madeleine and I walked the city at night......THANK YOU MADELEINE again and again...Noguchi bridge

My street
Public toilet in Peace Park

The Peace Museum
My favorite neighborhood restaurant where Toma is the chef with his brother and mother. It was his grandparent's restaurant in the center of the city but it was destroyed by the A-Bomb. His parents rebuilt it here. Toma brought me a bottle of Hiroshima sake today to the World Friendship Center. I had given him a tin of Tabasco chocolate....

After dinner, walking with Madeleine, here is Toma through the window, cooking or cleaning

The Rest House in Peace Park. Nomura Eizo survived the A-Bomb in the basement.

The A-Bomb Dome


The cenotaph where names of the dead from the A-Bomb are registered. Still, each year, about 5,000 names are added. This year marks the year of the 100th book of names of the dead.

The Okonomiyaki Restaurant 3 doors down from the World Friendship Center. When the cabbage and sprouts cook down, the chef flips the crepe delight and tops it with a fried egg, spices and sauce. YUM!