High definition two-channel video
8mins:14secs

Team Spirit

Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro

The artwork is a two-channel H.264 1920×1080 stereo video loop lasting 08m:14s

The Artwork is a playful study on scales of community engagement. Filmed in Shirone, Japan, the visuals focus on the yearly Giant Kite Battle that takes place along the Nakanoguchi river bank. This kite festival has been happening for over 300 years in Shirone, located on the West coast of central Honshu. It takes local teams an entire year to create these kites, which are then battled against other neighbourhood teams over the course of a week. At the end of the week, all kites have been destroyed in the individual bouts. The kite battle is a remarkable mix of community spirit, chaos and fun. One video channel focusses on the creation of these kites while the other channel documents the kite battle festival.

The audio component of the project is narrated in Esperanto. Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. It is a language filled with global Utopian ideals of peace and understanding between nations. We collaborated with members of Esperanto NSW to translate and voice-over the narrative that takes place in tandem with the kite festival footage. Esperanto is a manifestation of the desire to create a global community of people, developing global cross-cultural connections.

The grand communal ideals of Esperanto are juxtaposed with the highly localised subject of the narrative. The narrative is an account of a volunteer’s participation in a Sausage Sizzle. It is difficult to explain to a cultural outsider, the sentiments that are aroused within the mind of an Australian when they hear these two words. Sausage Sizzle is more than cooking meat: the act is communal, it conjures vague images of democracy, it is two words that somehow encapsulate the Je ne sais quoi of Australian-ness.

To explain the place that Sausage Sizzle holds within the Australian psyche is like trying to explain the significance of Tea Ceremony. Anyone can drink a cup of tea and most people can fry a sausage but somehow these simple acts can take on larger significance…

The clash of the exciting Kite Battle with the quotidian Sausage Sizzle represents two different types of local cultural activity. These two locally-based community activities are nestled within the globally community-minded Esperanto.

The two-channel video is subtitled in English as well as Japanese.

This project was supported by the Australia Council of the Arts.

Big Thanks to:

Videographer: Kazuma Miyano, Sunny Rain co., ltd, Tao Nashimoto, for second channel: Yusuke Mizuno

Sound: NSW Esperanto House, Voice: Jonathan Cooper. Esperanto translation: Dmitry Lushnikov. Proofreader: Nicole Else

Japanese Translation: Kureh Durant

Proofreading: Honoka Sato

Kite Teams : Sakuracho group (桜蝶組), Isshin Tasuke group (一心太助組), Benkei group, Hajime Otake

Shirone Town Guide: Keisuke Tomii and Michio Hando

Other thank You: The Niigata Toridako Group, Katsushiro Ichikawa, Aoki Hiromi, Igarashi Naoko, Keisuke Soga, Honoka Sato