Susan Norrie – Transit

Susan Norrie is an Australian artist, based in Sydney whose work is a combination of photography, film and documentary shown in large-scale multimedia installations. Her work, often set in the Asia-Pacific, explores the relationship between technology and the environment and the complicity between global media and government. 

In 'Transit' 2011, Norrie shows the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan and the tsunami which followed causing widespread flooding and the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. An anti-nuclear demonstration shows the anger and frustration of people following the disaster, while the destructive power of nature is emphasised by a shot of the Sakurajima volcano erupting prior to the earthquake.

Collaborating with the scientists of the Japanese Aerospace Agency (JAXA), Norrie filmed rockets taking off from the island of Tanegashima carrying satellites to track weather patterns and global greenhouse emissions. On the island of Okinawa, Norrie filmed the night drill of the American airbase, which provides an ominous contrast to the predominant indigenous culture of the people living there. Throughout 'Transit', Norrie uses the voice of a shaman, Yoshimaru Higa, as a way of providing a new perspective on man’s relationship with nature.