1995

I Am Sorry. Watari Um Museum, Tokyo, Japan 1995.
Back in 1990, I was scheduled to open my sandpainting show, My Father's Flag, at American Fine Arts, Co.. Jessica Diamond's show was still installed and she asked me to hold off on installing my show for a week to allow Jan Hoet, coming to town looking for artists to include in Documenta IX which he was to curate in 1992. She never forgot the favor and has been a great friend and supporter of my work ever since. Jessica made a formal introduction of my work to the great Belgian museum director, Jan Hoet, and I got into this amazing show in Tokyo.
I Am Sorry. A sandpainting concerned with formal apology. As realized in Tokyo, for a group exhibition entitled Ripple Across the Water, curated by Jan Hoet. This exhibition coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of the American use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The 1000 hand formed cement balls are arranged in Braille code to form the words (in English) "I am sorry, I am very sorry". Interestingly, because of the nature of the design, the formal apology is mirrored, allowing the possibiity that there are two simultaneous apologies.

The exhibition was hosted by the Watari Um Museum but actually was situated in many different locations throughout the Shibuya and Minato Prefectures of Tokyo. This work was in the garden space of MoonStar, a Tokyo footwear manufacturer's corporate headquarters.

At the entrance to the space, a portable cassette player played a loop of Brenda Lee's I'm Sorry.