“Earth” is a film that consists of three long slow motion shots. It depicts a landscape after a catastrophe – human bodies are mixed here with coils of wire, fragments of pallets and cardboard boxes, as well as dead fish and chaotically flashing light bulbs. The work bears a marked reference to European painting, especially French Romantic painting. The film has borrowed inspiration from Theodore Gericault’s “Raft of the Medusa” from 1819, one of the most significant paintings in France after the Revolution. Also noticeable are references to pieces by Eugene Delacroix (“The Massacre at Chios”, 1824) and Caravaggio (“The Incredulity of Saint Thomas”, 1601-1602 and “David with the Head of Goliath”, ca 1599). The artist’s fascination with old painting – highlighted by the strong light of fluorescent tubes that imitate the chiaroscuro effect of the Baroque paintings – was juxtaposed in the film with the contemporary electronic soundtrack of Black to Comm. Played in slow motion, the music seems hardly recognisable combining two temporally and geographically distant motifs.

旧制第一高等学校（通称、一高）は、1935年に本郷から駒場へと移転するが、そこでの生活は、本郷時代以来の「籠城主義」と呼ばれる自治寮での共同生活に支えられた、独特かつ閉鎖的なものだった。だが、1941年、1942年と戦時色が深まるにつれ、一高のアイデンティティともいえる「籠城主義」は、そのまま維持することはできなくなってくる。本作は、あたかも一高生らに同一化するかのように、アイデンティティの拠りどころを求めて研究に専念する大学院生の主人公「わたし」の意識を通じて、駒場時代の一高を描き出す。