The piece I chose to comment on is Takashi Arai’s “A Maquette for a Multiple Monument for B29: Bockscar.” The initial look of it was enticing alone, but as the curator explained more about the background of the piece, as well as the material it is made out of, the piece itself became much more interesting as I learned more.
The piece is about 100 photographs that are made using the daguerreotype technique. This technique involves coating the plate with iodine and bromine vapor, giving the picture a glassy and reflective appearance. 100 pictures of parts of the airplane was pieced together to form a black and white mosaic. At first glance, it simply was a mosaic of an airplane. However, the curator explained that this specific plane dropped a Fat Man nuclear weapon over the Japanese city of Nagasaki during World War II. Takashi Arai was very interested by WWII aviation, and his grandfather was even a captain of a repairing squadron of Imperial Japanese navy during the war.
Knowing both the background of the subject as well as the artist’s, I appreciate the knowledge and skill that he needed to produce both the picture itself, as well as representing it historically. The picture itself is simply a plane, yet how Arai chose to represent it (through daguerreotype) adds much more depth. It’s pieced together, it’s discolored in some areas, giving off a vintage feel, evoking a historical presence. However, its overall construction is very contemporary. It seems to be connecting bits of the past with the present.
