An archipelago-nation that consists of four main islands and roughly 3,000 smaller islands, Japan has one of the longest coastlines in the world, stretching over 18,486 miles. Located in an area of intense seismic activity, it also has an intimate familiarity with such natural disasters as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and landslides. In the series "half awake and half asleep in the water," begun in 2000, Asako Narahashi photographs Japan's coastal landscapes and architecture while standing precariously in the ocean just offshore. Caught in a mood of floating, dreamlike isolation, Narahashi's images testify to her sense of mixed pleasure and panic as she is buffeted by the swelling waves. Nature, glimpsed from this vantage, is both a serene presence and a turbulent, unpredictable force.

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Half Awake and Half Asleep in the Water

Exhibition Catalogue