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Mediatheque
Ozawa Tsuyoshi 小澤剛
Dr. N Song N博士之歌
2013
Ozawa Tsuyoshi’s Dr N Song is a moving image work created alongside his series of paintings, The Return of Dr N, that explores the life and legacy of the bacteriologist Noguchi Hideyo. Born in Fukushima prefecture in 1872, Noguchi was an influential if controversial figure who left Japan to conduct research in the United States. He died of yellow fever in 1928 in what is now Ghana, where he had travelled to study the disease.
Dr N Song features two Ghanaian musicians improvising a rhythmic dedication to Noguchi; their performance is interrupted by declarative narration and black-and-white images that conjure the doctor’s experiences. The song’s lyrics reference a formative injury, along with habits—drinking and womanising—that defined Noguchi’s lifestyle. As the song continues, a chorus of uniformed school children from Fukushima joins the Ghanaians in split screen. The work begins and ends with what seems to be an animatronic representation of Noguchi himself.
Dr N Song relies on interaction and intercultural exchange, approaches that are central to Ozawa’s practice. Taken together with the accompanying paintings, the work creates a compelling collaborative fictionalisation of the doctor.
Dr N Song features two Ghanaian musicians improvising a rhythmic dedication to Noguchi; their performance is interrupted by declarative narration and black-and-white images that conjure the doctor’s experiences. The song’s lyrics reference a formative injury, along with habits—drinking and womanising—that defined Noguchi’s lifestyle. As the song continues, a chorus of uniformed school children from Fukushima joins the Ghanaians in split screen. The work begins and ends with what seems to be an animatronic representation of Noguchi himself.
Dr N Song relies on interaction and intercultural exchange, approaches that are central to Ozawa’s practice. Taken together with the accompanying paintings, the work creates a compelling collaborative fictionalisation of the doctor.
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