The Tokyo-based artist’s slow, contemplative film examines historical narratives and the role of the museum via sixteenth century Japanese screens
“The little boy is kinda creepy… I hope he is okay,” an exhibition technician mutters to himself. ‘‘No shoes, bare feet, cats and dogs…’’ The man, played by Peter Golightly, looks out onto the gallery walls – less so to admire his handiwork, more to make sense of the narratives playing out in the pieces themselves – as he slowly spins around and around and around.
These works are replica photographs of Japanese folding screens painted by Kano Domi during the late sixteenth century. Known as Nanban byōbu and translated to ‘southern barbarian screens’, the name refers to the visual depictions of the first Europeans who reached Japan in 1543. They form the focus of Southern Barbarian Screens, a 2017 video work made by Japanese artist Hikaru Fujii, which follows Golightly as he adjusts track lighting in the gallery, installs the screens, and launches into a monologue of interrogation, contemplation and concern. The camera closes in on various scenes in the works, which appears to show a Portuguese trading vessel arriving in Nagasaki and the procession of its party through the city: gold, cages and slaves in tow.
The film itself is slow, silent, and unravels as though in real time, like we, too, are workers in the gallery. Like Golightly, the viewer is forced to confront our impatience, to trust the process, to engage with the work and wait for the fruit of the final result. But what, exactly, are we looking at? As Tyler Coburn writes in a feature from the Winter 2025 issue of ArtReview Asia, ‘In the final shot, Golightly runs towards the camera while staring at us, wordlessly demanding the same degree of critical attention from his audience that he had just given to the screens’. The trance breaks, and we’re left wondering how those histories continue to shape our realities. From them, what will we take?
Screening dates:
Art Lovers Movie Club: Hikaru Fujii: Southern Barbarian Screens, 2017
15 January–16 February, 2026
© Courtesy the artist
Hikaru Fujii is an artist based in Tokyo. Working across installation, film, and workshops, he explores the intersections of art, history, and society. His practice is grounded in extensive research and fieldwork, often focusing on specific historical moments and social issues, with a particular interest in the history of relations between Asia and Europe/the West. Through his work, Fujii critically examines contemporary and historical crises and forms of structural violence, investigating how they shape social realities and collective memory.
Southern Barbarian Screens will be shown at Hikaru Fujii’s solo exhibition at the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation in London, 5 March through 18 May 2026.
Each month in Art Lovers Movie Club, we select artists’ videos and screen them exclusively online at artreview.com. Explore the archive
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