The images and photos printed on the fabric wrapping the wing pieces and tail of the plane were sourced from the propaganda magazine of the Japanese military government in Indonesia during the occupation, Djawa Baroe Magazine, which was appropriated by Kitazawa. The same source was also utilized in creating several drawn works that are featured in this exhibition.
In addition to these works, Kitazawa displays a prototype of the Hayabusa kite. This Hayabusa kite, while inspired by the Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa aircraft, one of which is kept at the Dirgantara Mandala Museum in Yogyakarta, also adopts the concept of a giant kite in Bali. A few years ago, Kitazawa visited Bali and witnessed a kite in the shape of a dragon. Kitazawa combined the concepts of the two objects, resulting in a kite shape with the fuselage of a Hayabusa and the long tail of a dragon in Javanese-Balinese mythology.
Read: Exhibition of “Gunung Api Jassin, Lahar Panas Chairil” archive at Taman Ismail Marzuki
The Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa, currently at the Dirgantara Mandala Museum, is one of four Japanese heritage aircraft in addition to two Cureng (Yokosuka K5Y-Shinsitei) and a Guntei aircraft. The aircraft was also used during the war of independence, after its wings were festooned with a red and white emblem. The aircraft has been in Indonesia for approximately 80 years, bearing witness to the history of the Japanese occupation as well as to the relationship between the two countries post-independence, until now.
The ‘Fragile Gift’ project is concerned with symbolically bringing the Ki-43 Hayabusa back to Japan in the form of a kite. It returns in a different form, with all the historical baggage it carries. The project also hopes to be a collaborative project, where people from Indonesia and Japan can dialogue with each other, about the bitter past relationship while imagining what kind of future can be shaped together.