Shiga’s massive work, “NANUMOKANUMO, Anything and Everything” (2025), encompasses overlapping dimensions covering her fieldwork across the Tohoku region. The entire hall is one continuous bluish photographic scroll stretching over two hundred meters throughout the walls. At the entrance, one is instantly confronted by a gigantic tarpaulin ship eleven meters long and modeled after the nuclear-powered ship Mutsu launched in Aomori in 1969. It symbolizes a country haunted by dreams and anxieties in pursuit of reform through science and technology. Several heart-pounding images are depicted: a newborn baby wrapped in an entangled umbilical cord, as a metaphor for sorrow and destiny; an imaginary character Enao who transcends between reality and fantasy and past and present; chromatic constellations; and eerie blood paths.

Lieko Shiga, Born with ENAGARAMI [wrapped umbilical cords], 2025 © Lieko Shiga. Courtesy of the artist

Croaks of frogs echo, reminding us of the human connection with nature, knowledge, and the physical body. Scribbled texts interplay with the visuals, transcribing Enao’s floating thoughts surrounding his fishing adventures with his father, battle scenes on the Oshika Peninsula in 1945, effects of the Mutsu ship’s experimental voyage, the U.S.’ test detonation of the hydrogen bomb on the Marshall Islands, and other episodes that paint the social and environmental topography of Tohoku and the Sanriku region. They describe the unsettling direction of a volatile society despite advanced development.

Lieko Shiga, NANUMOKANUMO, 2025, “Yamashiro Chikako × Shiga Lieko – In the midst of” gallery view © Lieko Shiga. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: kugeyasuhide

The title NANUMOKANUMO signifies “anything and everything” in the Tohoku dialect, which in Shiga’s installation, translates into a desire to escape agony, turmoil, and despair, yet being unable to reach a resolution. The photographer moved to Miyagi Prefecture in 2008, and has focused her works on subjects revolving around communities and nature. Particularly after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011, she has been exploring the channel of “recuperation” within the human psyche.

She has exhibited at the MoMA New York (2010), the Foam Fotografie Museum, Amsterdam (2013), the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (2015), and others. Her achievements have earned her the 2007 Kimura Ihei Award and the 2021-2023 Tokyo Contemporary Art Award.

From the Ishibashi Foundation Collection, artworks by Ginger Riley Munduwalawala, “The Four Archers” (1994); Henry Moore, “Head of Prometheus” (1949); Shuzo Takiguchi, “Untitled” (1972); and Alberto Giacometti, “Walking Man”  are also on view. They evoke similar tones of hope, peril, myth, spirituality, consciousness, and memories. 

Jam Session: The Ishibashi Foundation Collection × Yamashiro Chikako × Shiga Lieko – In the midst of
Date: October 11th, 2025 – January 12th, 2026
Opening Hours: 10:00 – 18:00 (Fridays until 20:00)
Closed on Mondays（except January 12th), December 28th – January 3rd
Place: Artizon Museum
Address: 1-7-2 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Tel: +81 (0)47 316 2772
https://www.artizon.museum