Forerunner Bath House (2018) Kiwanosato. Initiated by Motoko Fujita and curated by Adam Sutherland on behalf of Grizedale Arts. Photograph: Motoko Fujita & the artist.
In 2018 we were invited by Grizedale Arts on a research trip to Kiwanosato, a tiny rural village in the Yamaguchi Prefecture in Southern Japan. The village had set up an educational program a few years earlier and as [art of this we were invited to visit and propose works that could help the village in some way. As part of this visit we built a Bath House by harvesting wood, straw, sliding doors, glass, stone and a cast iron bath from an old house that had fallen into ruin. By using materials from a house due to be demolished and dumped we were able not only to learn about the construction methods that had been used initially but carry these over into a Bath House that continues to be used to this day.