Ghost Self

うつし身

2014
multi-media installation; (single channel video [7'30"] and single channel video [13'25"]), chromogenic colour print, Japanese blade knife






Ghost Self was inspired by the Abe Sada incident, a bizarre murder which happened in 1936. The occurrence involved a 32-year-old housemaid named Abe Sada who strangled her extramarital lover, severing his penis and carrying it on her person. At the time, the bizarreness of the incident became a media sensation. To this day it is one of the most memorable murders from the Showa period. In the 1930s, when the incident occurred, the Great Kanto Earthquake had occurred, the Peace Preservation Law ad been enacted, Japan began its period of militarization, there was historic snowfall in Tokyo, the Tokyo Olympics were on the horizon, the winter Olympics were held in Germany, and on 26 February, national incident occurred. 






Photographs in an installation of Ghost Self, as well as a severed penis, depict the year of this incident occurred; images from other contemporary incidents that became social sensations in 1936 were included. The penis in the photograph is modelled after the penis of a human male in order to replicate the actual act committed by Abe Sada.