"The Islands" from "Circus of Life Reis naar Sachalin"
Statement:
Sakhalin is the farthest back-country from both Russia and the former occupying land Japan, yet, it became an indispensable island for both countries. Although it is remote, all kinds of affaires connected them. Anton Chekhov, worldwide-known writer’s travel to “The Island,” frontier prison colony, in 1890, and his longest documentary book tells surprising reality of Sakhalin at the end of the 19th century. In this book, not only Russians but also native people such as Ainu and Nivkh (Gilyak) people, French, German, Ukrainian, Korean, Chinese and Japanese appear. Although Sakhalin is an island located in far east, but it was a melting pot indeed.
And then, from 1905 to 1945, Sakhalin was the “Borderland” of Russia/USSR and Japan. Even Chekhov called the island as “Hell,” and it became a tragic battlefield in 1945, it drew all kinds of Japanese from fishermen, kelp farmers, paper industry companies to Comfort Women till the end of the WW2 (exactly 80 years ago!). Even Japanese poet/novelists such as Kenji Miyazawa who traveled with newly installed railway to create elegies for his dead sister, or Fumiko Hayashi who were drawn to Sakhalin as the borderland Japan never had.
Art-photo project “The Islands” will be constructed with my photo works capturing landscapes, sea-scapes, history and people there in the far north of Japan (if the war in Ukraine is over, I may travel in Sakhalin). Besides my own photos, found images and short texts such as part of Chekhov’s “The Island,” Kenji’s poems, old maps, archive photos, portraits of Ainu’s, Nivkh people and prisoners will create a large visual/imaginal map.
“Sakhalin” is an island to travel in our imagination to recall one’s memory and tell his/her story.
** from the curator Daphne Rieken **
In Circus of Life: Journey to Sakhalin, the circus is used as a tool to confront the darkest subjects. As soon as the noise subsides, the drums begin to beat, and the mockery begins, we embark on a fictional journey to Sakhalin—an island where the original inhabitants are constantly being hemmed in by another superpower: China, Russia, or Japan.
In Circus of Life - Journey to Sakhalin, Ingrid Oostendorp, Miyuki Okuyama, and Fabiènne Rachmadiev tell stories about how systems of power perpetuate violence in the world. The artist, photographer, and writer each choose a different approach: personal, documentary, or highly imaginative. But in all their stories, you see what happens when power touches people's lives. The characters are cast adrift,
are banished or oppressed, or flee the threat of violence.
The creators of this exhibition take you across unknown plains, over high mountains, across the sea. Across Siberia, Kazakhstan, and Hokkaido. They recount the raw aspects of world history. Journey to Sakhalin (1895) is the title of Anton Chekhov's account of his expedition to the island in the far east of Russia. Chekhov describes the desolate landscape and the inhospitable regions he travels through on his way to the penal colony of Sakhalin.
Photographer Miyuki Okuyama travels to Sakhalin from a different direction, setting her sights on the present day. The southern part of the island was Japanese territory from 1905 to 1945. After China and Russia had already established control, the lives of the local population—the Ainu, Orokh, Nivkhs, and Gilyaks—were now appropriated by a new colonial regime. This was relatively short-lived; after World War II, southern Sakhalin was annexed by Russia again.
Last summer, Okuyama traveled from her childhood home in Iwate to the northernmost tip of Japan. From there, Sakhalin is only a few hours' boat ride away. Yet, due to the recent conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, the distance still proves insurmountable. Okuyama's photographs of her journey reveal a restless emptiness; there's something in the air, but as a viewer, you're unsure how to interpret it.
Text by the curator: Daphne Rieken
Exhibition location: Kunstmagazijn, Kanunnik Mijllinckstraat 1, Nijmegen
Date: Sep 27, 2025 - Nov 9, 2025
Info: https://www.kunstmagazijn.nl/circus-of-life-reis-naar-sachalin/
Anton Chekhov
29 January 1860[c] – 15 July 1904
"Giovanni heard a strange voice calling out, 'Milky Way Station! Milky Way Station!'
At that moment everything before his eyes became suddenly bright as though the light from a trillion phosphorescent squid had been frozen at the same instant and dropped down into the sky, or as though a diamond company had pretended it was not making a good haul and had hoarded its diamonds in hopes of keeping the price hight, but someone had suddenly turned the cache upside down and scattered diamonds everywhere. Dazzled, Giovanni rubbed his eyes over and over again."
Kenji Miyazawa “A Night on the Galactic Railway”
translated by Sarah M. Strong
Kenji Miyazawa, a Japanese novelist and poet, 1896 - 1933
Standing tall along Wakkanai Port, the North Breakwater Dome is a striking half-arch structure built over 5 years to shield roads and railways from the fierce winds and waves that batter the coast more than 130 days a year. Rising 14 meters high and stretching 427 meters long, its 70 massive columns and gracefully curving colonnade evoke the elegance of ancient Greek architecture.
Ainu House, Sakhalin, 1912
(Ainu are the indigenous ethnic group living in northern Japan and southeastern Russia)
On 9 August 1945, Kasato Maru was bombed by three Soviet aircraft from. Kasato Maru then sank into the Bering Sea in the Soviet waters near the Kamchatka Peninsula. It is currently submerged to a depth of 18 meters and in good state of conservation.
“I remember the glowing western sky, the dark-blue sea and a completely white moon rising over the mountains.” “The Island” by Anton Chekhov
"Persons under investigation who have recently returned after attempting to escape and those who for some reason are under temporary arrest are held under lock and key in a separate building which is called "The Irons." The most frequently used threat on Sakhalin is: 'I'll put you in The Irons.' " A. Chekhov “The Island”
"When the train passes through the fields on such a dark night as this,
The passengers’ windows all become the windows of an aquarium.
(Like the ranks of dried telegraph poles
That are passing swiftly by,
The train races through a great hydrogen apple,
The lambent lens of the galaxy.)"
from “Aomori Elegy I” by Kenji Miyazawa/translation by Nathan Turowsky
Ainu woman, 1931
“We had scarcely dropped anchor when the sky darkened, thunder clouds gathers and the water turned an unusual, bright green.” “The Island” by Anton Chekhov