For her residency production in Aomori, Fionn DUFFY has been conducting research to study the life cycles of things and perceptions related to them, from the Jomon period civilization disposal sites to contemporary refuse processing and recycling. In her work Hikitsugu: nets, eddies and cadences of habits, she focuses on transformations seen in Scottish folktales of Selkie (mythological beings which live as seals and can shed their skins to reveal their human form) as keywords to examine the process of disposal and related thoughts.
　　　Selkie appear in different folktales while they share the common feature of being able to wear or remove sealskin. In certain historical remains, relics of seals and human hands were found together and it is said to have given credibility to the Selkie folktales.
　　　While Duffy researched disposal sites such as banks and shell mounds found in Jomon ruins, she learned that many interpretations were conveyed on relics used in rituals seen through contemporary eyes and that other remains were not yet fully unearthed as excavations were under way. At waste-disposal and recycling facilities, she saw how waste was turned into resources. Each process is part of a cycle, and recycled products are passed on to facilities with different roles. While getting in touch with people’s perceptions and ways of thinking in her research, Duffy came to understand changing methods and thoughts, and found commonality among the people involved, of wanting to pass on things/waste itself, ways to manage waste, and roles in both historical and processing cycles to the next generation.
　　　In her video work, scenes from these places are included, and interviews of different people, folktales of Aomori and Selkie are overlapped. Relics from the ancient times, waste from the present, reflections on glass, many layers created by light and shadows, and obscure scenery projected along with them look as if they were going back and forth between vague memories and truth like old tales that we listen as we doze off.
Arranged on the wall are pieces of paper made from fragments of materials that she collected during the residency. Seen on the layers piling up on the floor are not a single material of paper or plastic but things combined with such pieces. On their surfaces aside from the painted patterns, we can see from their texture, wrinkles and overlaps of layers that different materials are combined to form one sheet. When we remember the existence of skin in between the human form and the seal, such layers seem to suggest a part of transformation. The scene of refuse processing and remains of a disposal site remind us of a common disposal method of burying in the ground.
　　　Stories having the same characters but different endings reflect people’s intensions to preserve and manipulate as well as their persistent creativity. We only know one phase of a changing story. The life cycle of relics and waste, the various methods involved in processing them and the actions of people based on social or political principles might be just one page of a changing story. This work Hikitsugu: nets, eddies and cadences of habits continues to change during the exhibition and will embody the state of these transformations.

Text: MURAKAMI Aya (ACAC)
Translator: NISHIZAWA Miki