About the Work
Left Panel: The Divine Thunderbolt Corps
This panel was photographed in the Yusakan Shrine and War Museum which I discovered hidden in a Tokyo park. The museum was closed by order of General MacArthur at the end of World War Two. It reopened in the mid1980s. Inside, a lurid diorama celebrates the achievements of the corps as they make suicide dives on US aircraft carriers. I cut the diorama into the shape of one of the airplanes.
Centre Panel: Singapore Surrender
The lower section of this panel was photographed in a wax museum in Singapore. Here the British are seen in 1942 surrendering the most powerful western military base in East Asia. Soon after, the captured soldiers of the British Empire were building the Burma Railroad for their conquerors. The upper section shows the first steam engine to cross the bridge on the River Kwai and travel the railroad. It now stands as a memorial outside the Yusakan Shrine and War Museum in Tokyo.
Right Panel: Human Torpedo
In the main hall of the Yusakan shrine and war museum is a real underwater Kamikaze machine, the 'Kaiten' or 'Human Torpedo', with a cross-section drawing of its determined sole occupant. The torpedo is on extended loan to the Tokyo Museum, courtesy of the US military authorities in Hawaii.
Details
Size and Material
6'10" x 28'10"
Photographic Collage on Aluminium
Tags
″I still use the same approach to my work: I get an idea, think of the title and then make the work. So not much has changed since 1964″
Copyright ©2024 belongs to Vaughan Grylls
Design: www.renebach.dk