The Japanese public mostly opposes holding the Tokyo Olympics next month during a pandemic. However, public protests to show such dissent have been rare. A different way people have expressed their concern about the Olympics has been art. They have protested through messages on clothing, paintings and other art forms. In some cases, officials have demanded the sometimes satiric art and other products be removed. Artists say their freedoms are being taken. Miwako Sakauchi is among them. On this day, she stands in her workroom and paints on torn cardboard and drawing paper. She uses the five colors that represent the modern Olympics. Sakauchi calls the series of paintings, Vortex. She said they express what she called the, “anger, fear, sense of contradiction and state violence” over Olympics preparations. People have been forced from their homes and trees have been cut down to build huge sports centers for the games, she said. “I can’t think of it as a ‘festival of peace’ in this situation,” Sakauchi said. “It’s totally nonsensical.” The risk of infection from the virus may have prevented some people from taking to the streets to protest. Recent public protests in Japan have been small, with crowds of less than 100 people. Sakauchi created the paintings after she was contacted by a group of artists who organized an anti-Olympics art event last summer. Her works were shown in another event in February.
