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280ページに及ぶ、5年ぶりの新作写真集。
土地に根差し、全身全霊で感受したカオスが立ち現れる。

写真家 志賀理江子が宮城県を訪れてから6年が経過しました。
この展覧会は、自らの生活環境や経験と写真表現を一体にしようと探求してきた志賀の現時点での成果を提示するものです。1980年生まれの志賀は、快適に 整えられ自動化された日々の生活と社会に身体的な違和感を感じるところから表現を始めました。国内外で活動しながら、2006年の当館の企画展参加を契機 に初めて宮城県を訪れました。その後も志賀は、密接な土地との関係を求めて何度も東北に戻ってきました。そして、太平洋に面した北釜（※）の松林と出会っ たのです。
志賀は北釜で暮らしながら、地域のカメラマンとして祭りなどの公式行事を記録し、オーラルヒストリー（口述史）の作成を行いました。それらの経験は作品制 作に大きく影響していきます。志賀は写真が自らの身体とかけ離れないように、北釜の空気をいっぱいまで吸い込み、静かに長く吐き出すようにして一つずつの 作品を制作してきました。それは、北釜の固有性や独自性を観念的に表すことではなく、北釜の土地と関係した身体の痕跡を写し出そうとすることでした。です から、その作品には北釜を物語る作者の回答ではなく、写真というメディアとは何か、土地とともにある暮らしと表現とは何かについて、志賀が自問し追求して きた大きな問いそのものが現れています。それらは多くの困難を抱えながらある現在の私たちの社会に切実な声として届くことでしょう。
（※）北釜　宮城県名取市下増田字屋敷の呼称
ーーー展覧会「螺旋海岸」ホームページより

In 2008, Lieko Shiga announced herself on the Japanese photography scene. That year, she published two books ("CANARY," through Akaaka, and "LILLY") and received the prestigious Ihee Kimura Photography Award. This personal, dreamlike work was also recognized by an ICP Infinity Award. Surely, from that point on, Shiga could have gone on to work in the vein of "CANARY" to continued acclaim both in Japan and abroad. However, in 2009, she moved to Kitakama, a coastal town in Japan's Tohoku region, where she began working as the town's official photographer. This move marks a significant turning point for Shiga, and "Rasen Kaigan" collects this new body of work into a book.

Shiga's photographs from Kitakama are different from her previous work in that they were produced over more than four years, in concert with the local residents. This personal connection is noteworthy, and indeed it might not be far-fetched to say that Shiga is operating more as an "organizer" than as a "photogrpher." Yet it's clear that "Rasen Kaigan" is Shiga's tour de force. The images in this book call to mind many things outside the realm of photography: surrealism, land art, happenings, sculpture and the presence of Japanese "earth spirits," to name just a few. Kitakama was severely affected by Japan's March 2011 tsunami, and "Rasen Kaigan" acknowledges this disaster, but this is far from a book of "tsunami photos." Years in the making, "Rasen Kaigan" affirms Shiga's position as one of the most compelling young photographers in Japan today.

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Six years have passed since Lieko Shiga came to Miyagi Prefecture.
This exhibition shows us the results of Shiga's attempts to integrate her surroundings and experiences with her photographic expression. Lieko Shiga's artistic practice has developed out of her visceral sense of unease with the coziness and automation of everyday life. Born in 1980, she has made her work both in Japan and abroad. Her first visit to Miyagi Prefecture was in 2006, when she was taking part in an exhibition at the Sendai Mediatheque. Since then she has returned to Tohoku countless times, each time seeking to foster an intimate relationship with this region. One day, in Kitakama (∗) , she discovered a pine forest that faces the Pacific.
Living in Kitakama, Shiga worked as the resident photographer, documenting festivals and other official events while also recording an oral history of the region. These experiences had a major influence on her practice. Shiga created each work as though her photography were inseparable from her own body? as if inhaling Kitakama's air as deeply as possible and then slowly, quietly breathing it out. This was not meant as a conceptual expression of Kitakama's character and individuality, but to reveal traces of physical activities connected with the land. Therefore, what one sees in Shiga's works is not an auteur's "answer" to telling the stories of Kitakama, but the revelation of Shiga's ongoing engagement with the larger questions she asks herself: What is the nature of photography as a medium? And what is the nature of living and expressing oneself on land? Perhaps these questions speak clearly to our society and its many problems.
(∗) Kitakama is the general name for Yashiki, Aza, Shimomasuda, Natori City, Miyagi Prefecture
---- from website of exhibition "RASEN KAIGAN"