Smoke and mirrors (2023) by Yuki Kihara

Single channel video.
Duration: 02mins 31secs

‘Smoke and mirrors’ (2023) video work juxtaposes video footage of environments filmed between Sāmoa and the Netherlands. The right side of the screen features a handheld video footage capturing Tropical cyclone Gita and its chaotic aftermath filmed in Upolu Island, Sāmoa in 2018; while the left side of the screen features a video footage of gentle smoke coming out of a factory chimney filmed during my fellowship hosted by the National Museum of World Cultures in the Netherlands in 2019. While Sāmoa in the Pacific and the Netherlands in Europe are geographically distant; they are both connected by a shared global ecosystem albeit with excessive levels of carbon emmissions by the later that’s triggering global warming and climate change. 

The Cambridge disctionary defines ‘Smoke and mirrors’ as ‘intended to make you believe that something is being done or is true, when it is not’. The video work serves as a metaphor where the title alludes to how foreign aid often serves as a smoke screen to conceal greater climate impacts experienced by low and middle income countries than richer counterparts, infomed by a history of imperialism and colonialism that has devastated biodiversity therefore impacting people’s livelihood and their close dependence on thriving ecosystems.

‘Smoke and mirrors’ (2023) serves as a clarion call to decolonise our perceptions about the natural environment and to partake of a richer and more equitable exchange between people and places.