編集 / Editor:
Anthony Umina

字幕 / Subtitles:
Aya Momose

音楽 / Music:
Purya Alimirzaee, Anita Arakelian, Igor Khabarov, Linus Daniel Pamp

ご協力 / Special acknowledgements:
Andrea B. Braidt (Vice Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), Margit Kornfeld (Manager of Caritas der Erzdiözese Wien), Kirsi Mikkola (Professor of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), Christoph Rodler (Professor of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), Ramin Siawash (Afghanistan/English translator), Gerhard Zwettler (former Director of the Magdas Hotel), Dario Solman

Vienna, the golden city, the city of music and art, is one of the most alluring metropolises in the world. People come to Vienna to improve their lives, expand their horizons, and seek new opportunities. Some of them have to overcome a great number of difficulties in order to reach it. Nevertheless, they arrive in Vienna with their dreams and hopes intact.

I started this project when I was an artist-in-residence at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. I interviewed 16 people who all came to Vienna from abroad, including students, refugees and immigrants. They came from Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Kosovo, Palestine, Ghana, China, Korea, Japan, Germany, Sweden, and Mexico. I asked them about their home countries and wanted to hear them speak in their native tongues. While listening to these interviews, I felt their longing for all the things that they had left behind in their native lands.

I saw connections between Vienna, my current home of New York and my hometown of Kanazawa, Japan. In particular, I noticed that Vienna’s interiors and exteriors overflow with golden ornamental patterns. This reminded me of the famous Kanazawa gold leaf and art deco buildings in New York such as Rockefeller Center, Chrysler Building, etc. This link among 3 cities, the culturally rich golden color, left a strong mark in my mind and inspired this work.

This exhibition was originally planned to open in 2020; however, Covid-19 has spread across the world, and without exception, New York has been hit so hard by coronavirus and the exhibition has been postponed several times. Then the war broke out in Ukraine in this February, the world has been shaken by this event. I pray for peace in Ukraine, thinking about people who have fled Ukraine, who are far from home. It has been over 2 years since originally planned, and I am very pleased to share this work in exhibition in Nippon Club. Far From Home is a 60 min long, 3-channel 3D-sound video installation. It was exhibited in 2018 at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan, and in 2019 at the Embassy of Japan in Vienna, Austria.

Saeri Kiritani was born in Osaka, Japan and grew up in Kanazawa. She received the BA degree at San Francisco State University, BFA at the San Francisco Art Institute, and MFA in painting/mixed media at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, USA, PHD student at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK since 2021. She had numerous international solo and group exhibitions including: Nippon Club Gallery, New York (2022), Japan Information and Cultural Center in Embassy of Japan, Vienna, Austria (2019), 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (2018), the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC.(2013), Postmasters, New York (2013); Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2012, 2022); The 2nd Bosnia Biennial of Contemporary Art, Konjic, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2013); Art Gummi, Kanazawa, Japan (2011); Exit Art, New York (1998-2010); Louis A. Meiser Gallery, New York (2009); Croatian Association of Artists Museum, Zagreb, Croatia (2009); Inform Gallery, Kanazawa, Japan (2004); Apex Art, New York (2002) and many other. She lives and works in New York.

The Nippon Gallery at The Nippon Club
145 West 57th Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212-581-2223
gallery@nipponclub.org | www.nipponclub.org

July 21-27, 2022

Gallery Hours:
10:00am – 6:00pm (M-F)
10:00am – 5:00pm (Sat) (closed on Sun)