Suddenly This Overview

Suddenly This Overview is a solo exhibition by Kosuke Nagata, a Japanese contemporary artist based in Kanagawa.

Curated by Tomoya Iwata (Director of The 5th Floor, a curatorial space in Tokyo), this exhibition features Nagata’s new works based on his on-site research of the Japanese War Cemetery and the Japanese Garden in Cowra, New South Wales.

Nagata has a longstanding interest in themes across diverse fields and historical periods, from the circulation of images through media technologies to food production systems such as large-scale livestock farming and aquaculture, as well as the agricultural policies of Imperial Japan. In his practice, he has engaged with these subjects through a wide range of media, including photography, video installations and performance. Underlying these practices is an exploration of epistemological questions—of how frameworks of our perception and the social structures surrounding us have been historically formed, and how they continue to be reproduced.

Through this exhibition, Nagata explores the history of the Japanese War Cemetery and Japanese Garden in Cowra.

Cowra is known as the site of the largest prisoner of war breakout in modern military history, which led to numerous deaths. It is also a significant place that symbolises post-war reconciliation between Australia and Japan. Cowra Japanese Garden serves not only as a place of remembrance for the Japanese soldiers who lost their lives in the incident, but also continues to function as a venue for cultural exchange between Australia and Japan to this day. The Japanese War Cemetery in Cowra brings together the remains of nearly all internees and prisoners of war who were once buried across Australia, including civilians as well as individuals from former colonies such as Taiwan and Korea.

Cowra holds many layers of history formed like geological strata, which cannot be reduced to the incident or its commemoration alone. Through this exhibition, Nagata attempts to trace the town’s multi-layered history, closely examining each gaze that was once directed toward this land, as well as those that never were.

Suddenly This Overview will be held at the Japan Foundation Gallery until 29 August, 2026.

Photos by Document Photography