“Japan’s government doesn't yet recognise non-heteronormative families and Morita and McCready are faced with a potential forced divorce. But what is a family? FAMILY MOVE aims to discuss this question with a broader audience.
McCready and Morita moved house during March of 2021, together with their three children; Ottosson will also move in to this new space whenever the Japanese border opens and he is able to join them. Since covid-restrictions had put stop the previously planned art project they choose to instead center it around the very family activity of moving house. They invited people to join their family unit temporarily via an open call on fully public social media (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook). Those responding to the call joined the family in the project of moving house: packing boxes, carrying boxes, unpacking, etc. The temporary family was fed and invited to stay in the family's living space for as long as they chose during the term of the project (March 8 – 25, 2021).
Each family member was also invited to make material for a zine on the theme of ‘family’ collated and designed by McCready, Morita and Ottosson afterward and printed together with essays by McCready and artist Dan Isomura. All of this was documented via videographic means by Ippei Nakao (the `+I' of `MOM and I'), who edited the results and made a video suitable for installation. These three elements – participatory, print, and video – comprise the final piece. This family unit further pushes the boundary of the `traditional' heteronormative family by structuring around choice and intention, and by explicitly taking family to be a temporary social unit.”
A beautiful publication containing many contributions by members of a self-made family. After a change of registered gender, a married couple’s legal status is threatened due to Japan’s non-recognition of same-sex marriage, resulting in a conflict with the Japanese Government. In this zine, this struggle is juxtaposed with an investigation into the notion of ‘family’ and an alternative is offered to conservative, heteronormative and restrictive views of the so-called ‘nuclear family’. The zine consists of reproductions of playful and energetic drawings, collages and notes, with texts in Japanese, English and Swedish.
Also included is a link where readers can support the authors' legal battle with the Japanese Government and see updates:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-sue-japanese-gov039t-gender-and-marriage
Stapled, 21 x 14,5 cm, 62 not numbered pages, n.p. n.d.
