TSUTAJA Gaku

Born in 1974 in Tokyo. Lives and works in New York, USA. Tsutaja graduated from Tokyo Zokei University with a major in painting in 1998. After working as part of the artist unit “gansomaeda,” she moved to the United States in 2006 and earned an MFA from the State University of New York at Purchase (SUNY Purchase) in 2018. Following the nuclear accident caused by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, she began investigating historical facts and memories surrounding nuclear weapons and war and producing works in various media including drawing, sculpture, video, and performance. Based on stories heard from researchers, journalists, and atomic bomb survivors in Japan and the US, as well as archival photographs and other materials, Tsutaja seeks to reinterpret and reconstruct this history as a set of transnational issues while incorporating allegorical elements.