Projects

At the moment we are hard at work creating high quality art prints on Japanese paper (washi). Some of these we are mounting on antique hanging scrolls and some we are using a special process to mount unframed. When the first group of pieces is complete we hope to have 20-30 in total and will then be looking to exhibit as widely as possible. So, as you may imagine, now we are reaching out to galleries and other venues that seem like they would be a good fit for this type of project. If you like the pieces we are creating, would like to help support this project, and have access to gallery space or connections to exhibition spaces feel free to contact us and let us know. Thanks in advance for your support ~

Over the course of two years driving long stretches of highway between major cities in search of new art to photograph, I had a lot of time to think. This was especially true because early on in my travels the antenna on my SUV broke off one day while off-roading, leaving me with not even the option of listening to local radio stations. Sometimes I would be driving 10, 12, 14 hours in one day, and the place I would end up looked almost identical to the place I started off from in the morning. Breathtaking scenery to be sure, but with no major landmarks or scenery breaks, or music to distract the mind, thoughts tended to drift, and I often found myself contemplating what I was going to do with all of these images once I was “finished” with the epic project I had somehow conned myself into undertaking. It was through this kind of daily meditation that I eventually came up with the idea of starting the SASA fund site. In the same way, I used this time to refine the concepts for the book―still a work in progress―and imagined interesting ways to combine the Japanese art and aesthetics of my profession with these captivating images that were so much in contrast with the subtle and refined Japanese styles I was used to.

Being an art dealer in Japan I often come across beautiful antique hanging scrolls with intricate silk brocades, some of which, due to their great age, display paintings that have not stood the test of time as well as their backing. Exquisitely beautiful things that are considered to have very little value in Japan because they are thought to be unsalvageable, with the cost of meticulously taking them apart and refurbishing them being too great in most cases. Meanwhile, the artwork that I was discovering on the streets of South American cities, though captivating to me, seemed not always to be appreciated by the people living there. Although everyone in the know would agree there are a lot of exceptionally talented artists in every corner of South America producing world-class murals, it is just as true there is also a lot of crap to sift through, if we are being completely honest. So the idea I kept coming back to again-and-again was taking these under-appreciated relics from Japan and seeing if I could adorn them with these under-appreciated artworks I was documenting in South America. A clash not only of cultural forms, but also (I hoped) something that might trigger a total reevaluation and reappraisal of each cultural artifact in relation to the other. Discarded cultural remnants, slowly decaying into oblivion, that, when combined in the right way and with the right sensitivity, might bring new life to both.

So, that is what I have been working on since coming back to Japan in April of 2020, making high quality prints on Japanese washi and having traditional craftsmen mount them on beautiful old silk scrolls, hopefully one day to find their way to the walls of various galleries around the world for exhibition. We will be adding images of these pieces to a gallery here soon so if you would like to support us by purchasing one, know that proceeds go mainly to continuing our activities documenting street art, to a book that we hope to have out in the next year or two, and to supporting artists across South America. Also, if there are any images from the gallery that you would like us to print on washi or mount on a scroll you can contact us and we can discuss the details. Thanks again for all your support ~