Title:
Tanforan Race Track
Creator/Contributor:
Hibi, Hisako
Date:
8/1/1942
Identifier:
96.601.2
Format:
painting
oil on canvas
Description:
Unframed, stretched canvas. Image of dark barracks in center of racetrack, trees circling track and more buildings and mountains
in background.
Historical Note:
This painting is another view of Tanforan from a bird's-eye perspective. It represents what Hibi probably imagined this scene
to look like from a relatively high vantage point, a position beyond the confines of the race track. Hibi entitled this work
"Tanforan Race Track" but further added the commentary that "The horse stalls were behind the eucalyptus trees." The scene
that Hibi provides the viewer, however, situates the trees behind the horse stalls and not vice versa. Perhaps this reversal
of orientation in Hibi's description of the painting suggests the artist's perspective from outside of the camp grounds. The
emphasis is on the isolation of the camp, hidden behind a wall of trees. The high horizon line and shallow space of the painting
contribute to the cramped feeling of the work.
Subject:
Assembly Centers, Tanforan | barracks | trees | racetrack | mountains