Hiroshima Prize Artist Mel Chin Discusses Climate Crisis and Empathy

The NPO Art & Society Research Center and the environmental journal 'BIOCITY' have focused on a new wave of art that acts with and confronts people on various challenges facing contemporary society, introducing it through books, exhibitions, and talk events.

Last year, Mel Chin, one of the leaders in this movement, received the Hiroshima Prize, and a commemorative exhibition will be held at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art starting July 25. To mark this occasion, we have planned a lecture in Tokyo inviting Mel Chin, who will be visiting Japan. Through his new work paying homage to Keiji Nakazawa, the author of 'Barefoot Gen,' which will be newly presented at the commemorative exhibition, and an introduction to his art project that expands the circle of empathy, he will discuss how art can evoke social awareness and responsibility regarding serious issues such as the climate crisis.

[Hiroshima Prize Acceptance Message] "...This award also imposes another responsibility on me. That is to cultivate complex ideas and relationships, and to use them as tools for the pursuit of the ideals of resistance to violence and the expansion of the circle of empathy." (Translated from Mel Chin's Instagram after receiving the award, excerpt) https://www.instagram.com/p/DCxrW-Dsql2?img_index=1

Event Outline

Date & Time | July 30, 2026 (Thu) Doors open 18:00, Start 18:30 Venue | Cocoon Hall B (Shinjuku Cocoon Tower 3F) Capacity | 150 people (Advance registration required) Participation Fee | General: 1,500 yen (Same for in-person and online) Students: Free (Same for in-person and online) *Student ID required on the day

*Online participation registration deadline: July 29 (Wed) 12:00 Organizer | NPO Art & Society Research Center + BIOCITY Cooperation | Professional Institute of International Fashion (PIIF) Program | 18:30-19:30 Mel Chin Lecture 19:40-20:10 Dialogue Mel Chin + Wakato Onishi (Asahi Shimbun Editorial Writer)

*Consecutive interpretation will be provided for the lecture and dialogue.

Application | Please apply from the Peatix page below.

Peatix

Speaker Biographies

photo credit: Miriam Heads

Mel Chin

Born in Houston, Texas, USA, in 1951. Received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1975. Began his artistic activities addressing social issues in the 1980s.

His work spans diverse forms of expression, from sculpture, drawing, painting, video, and animation to large-scale installations, integrating science and technology. He tackles complex social and political issues such as environmental pollution, climate change, violence, and colonial rule with a unique approach. He is also known for his socially engaged art projects that involve communities in addressing local issues and are developed over long periods.

Notable works include the experimental project 'Revival Field' (1991-), which uses plants to detoxify polluted soil; 'Our Strange Flower of Democracy' (2005), a bamboo sculpture resembling a U.S. military bomb used in the Vietnam War, which critiques the brutal military actions of the United States despite its espousal of democracy; 'Operation Paydirt/Fundred Dollar Bill Project' (2006-), which links children's creativity to an anti-lead poisoning campaign; 'Wake & Unmoored' (2018), an installation in New York's Times Square combining a physical giant sculpture with augmented reality (AR) to sharply address the relationship between climate change and economic expansion; and 'Flint Fit' (2018), in Flint, Michigan, which has suffered from severe water contamination since 2014. This project collected 90,000 discarded plastic bottles daily from residents, recycled them into fabric, which fashion designers used to create clothing, sewn by a non-profit women's employment support facility, linking recycling, industry, fashion, and local job creation.

Mel Chin's activities over the past 40 years have been recognized as aligning with the spirit of the Hiroshima Prize, which honors artists who have contributed to human peace through their work in the field of art and promotes the 'Spirit of Hiroshima' for the abolition of nuclear weapons and lasting world peace. He was awarded the prize for these reasons. Mel Chin is currently based in a small administrative district in western North Carolina and continues his international activities.

Speaker Biographies

Wakato Onishi

Born in Kyoto Prefecture. Graduated from the Department of Urban Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokyo, and completed his master's program there. Joined Asahi Shimbun in 1987. He has primarily covered and written about art and architecture in departments such as the Cultural News Department of the Tokyo, Osaka, and Western headquarters. After serving as deputy director of the department, he became an editorial writer in 2010. He is currently a visiting professor at the Department of Architecture and Design, Kyouritsu Women's University, and an adjunct lecturer at the Graduate School of Nihon University College of Art. He is a juror for the Hiroshima Prize. In 2026, he received the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize for Culture. His books include 'ART and the Body and Contemporary Architecture' (Gendaikikakushitsu) and contributions to 'Daido Moriyama and His Era' (Seikyusha).

Main Projects to be Introduced in the Talk (Tentative)

'Revival Field' 1991- Revival Field A project to purify soil contaminated with heavy metals at the Pig's Eye Landfill in St. Paul, Minnesota, and visualize the process. Chin, along with scientist Dr. Rufus Chaney, planted hyperaccumulators, known for absorbing heavy metals, in separate plots for zinc, copper, and lead, and observed them experimentally for three years. He argued that these plots were not only test sites for environmental improvement but also 'sculptural works,' embodying a pioneering collaboration between science, technology, and art. Similar projects were also carried out in Palmerton, Pennsylvania, and Stuttgart, Germany, aiming to raise ecological awareness.

Revival Field, 1991. Photo: David Schneider.

'Our Strange Flower of Democracy' 2005 Our Strange Flower of Democracy Bamboo sculptures resembling inverted pencils hang from the ceiling. These are modeled after the infamous U.S. military bomb 'BLU-82' (nicknamed Daisy Cutter), used in the Vietnam War, Gulf War, and Afghanistan conflict, and intensely satirize the contradiction of the United States, which claims to champion 'the cause of democracy' while actually seeking to dominate and intimidate other countries through overwhelming military force (bombs).

Our Strange Flower of Democracy, 2005. Bamboo, river cane, burlap, coir, mahogany, steel, bottle caps, 457.2 x 548.6 cm (diameter). Photo: Judy Cooper, courtesy of the New Orleans Museum of Art.

'Fundred Dollar Bill Project' 'Operation Paydirt' 2006 After Hurricane Katrina, Mel Chin visited New Orleans and launched a project to find creative solutions for the urgent issue of high-concentration lead contamination in the soil, exacerbated by the disaster. This contamination is a major cause of health problems, especially for children. Through workshops in schools across the country, children created fictional $100 bills, raising $300 million. This project involved transporting the collected bills in a specially equipped armored truck to Congress, demanding funding for remediation efforts at a rate of $100 per bill.

Students at Maury Elementary in Washington DC greet the Fundred Armored Truck. Fundred Project, 2008-2022. Photo: Yassine El Mansouri, courtesy Fundred Project.

Detail of Fundreds on view at Contemporary Art Museum Houston. Fundred Project, 2008-2022. Photo: Rick Gardner, courtesy Fundred Project.

'Wake and Unmoored' 2018 Wake, Unmoored A giant sculptural work (Wake), inspired by a 19th-century clipper ship's skeleton and the popular opera singer Jenny Lind of that era, was installed in New York's Times Square. Around it, viewers could experience a submerged future Times Square using smartphones or AR (Augmented Reality) devices (Unmoored). This installation uses physical and virtual experiences to inform people that the past economic activities that brought prosperity to New York have led to the current climate crisis.

Wake, 2018. Wood, steel, fiberglass, electronic and mechanical components, paint, 7.3 x 10.3 x 18.3 meters. Image courtesy of the artist.

'Flint Fit' 2018 Flint Fit In Flint, Michigan, where severe tap water contamination has persisted, Chin conceived this SEA project to find hopeful possibilities using discarded plastic bottles that residents throw away daily as a resource. In 2018, as the water crisis entered its fourth year and citizens were still forced to use bottled water for drinking, cooking, and washing, Chin and a group of Flint activists collected 90,000 empty plastic bottles and sent them to Unifi, a textile manufacturing company in Greensboro, North Carolina, to be recycled into fabric. Fashion designer Tracy Reese designed clothing using the recycled fabric, and the clothes were produced at St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center, a non-profit community support facility in Flint. This SEA project addresses the water crisis by linking recycling, industry, fashion, and local job creation.