National —
2002, digital video, 5:00 minutes
National is an homage to the National Products building, one of Philadelphia’s architectural landmarks. The building was left vacant for over a decade in the early 1990’s, and in 2002 Hironaka was invited to explore the interior for a work she created for the Fringe Arts Festival. National reanimates derelict offices and corridors, conjuring voices and images which once inhabited the structure. Imagined dramas play out within the space drawn from the buildings’ early twentieth century activity up to the early twenty-first century. Images of the building’s interior are combined with audio samples blurring the line separating fact and fiction, memory and history.
