id: 170126 accession number: 2012.337 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2012.337 updated: 2023-03-22 03:04:53.860000 Video Site Documentation: Lexus Fire Pit Site, Sonoran Desert, Arizona, U.S.A. , 1985. Patrick Nagatani (American, 1945–2017). Chromogenic (Fujicolor Crystal Archive) print; image: 18.1 x 23.9 cm (7 1/8 x 9 7/16 in.); paper: 20.2 x 25.3 cm (7 15/16 x 9 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of George Stephanopoulos 2012.337 © Patrick Nagatani title: Video Site Documentation: Lexus Fire Pit Site, Sonoran Desert, Arizona, U.S.A. title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1985 creation date earliest: 1985 creation date latest: 1985 current location: creditline: Gift of George Stephanopoulos copyright: © Patrick Nagatani --- culture: America, 20th century technique: chromogenic (Fujicolor Crystal Archive) print department: Photography collection: PH - American 1951-Present type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Patrick Nagatani (American, 1945–2017) - artist --- measurements: Image: 18.1 x 23.9 cm (7 1/8 x 9 7/16 in.); Paper: 20.2 x 25.3 cm (7 15/16 x 9 15/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Written in black marker in bottom margin of recto: "LEXUS FIRE PIT SITE, SONORAN DESERT, ARIZONA, U.S.A. 1985/2001 22/30 PATRICK NAGATANI (signed)" translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Constructed Identities opening date: 2014-12-14T00:00:00 Constructed Identities. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (December 14, 2014-April 26, 2015). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Unknown before acquisition by George Stephanopoulos. date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: Which is more useful to humanity: fact or myth, science or faith? This question is central to the saga imagined and brought to life by Nagatani of the archeological explorations led by the artist’s alter ego, Japanese scientist Ryoichi. Traveling the globe between 1985 and 2000, Ryoichi’s team locates and documents 13 of 30 archeological sites, each of which contains a remarkably well-preserved, low-mileage automobile that must have been buried there centuries earlier. Photographs, stills from video documentation, artifacts, and pages from Ryoichi’s journal serve as scientific "proof" that time may not be linear. "If fiction has given more to us than fact, then this is the greatest truth," writes Ryoichi/Nagatani in his journal at the thirteenth and final site. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Fensom, Sarah E. "I.D., Please: An Eclectic Exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art Focuses on the Way Photorgraphers Both Establish and Subvert their Subjects' Identities." Art & Antiques 38, no. 2 (February 2015): 64-68. page number: 65 url: --- IMAGES