street profile picture scroll at Omoide Yokochou(Memory Lane)
Back Ground and Concept
Omoide Yokochou(Memory Lane) was built just after World War 2. It is miracle that these old shacks remain now at the center of Tokyo. Some people wants to rebuilt them into new clean buildings and some people want to save these buildings wothout changes.
I thought that Omoide Yokochou(Memory Lane) needed some discussions and conversations to decide the future of this place so I started Street Profile Painting Scroll Project to produce arguments and discussions about this place.
Each person takes a look at Omoide Yokochou from each point of view and each person has each different image for this Lane. To express this, more than thousand pictures were taken and these photos were synthesised to one picture scroll. That's why it might be said that this picture scroll is created by combining many people's points of view. Then, I created the line drawing from this picture scroll.
I brought this line drawing out to this Lane and let people there paint it by water color paint. Sketching is difficult but sketching has been already done by a computer and a printer so it is possible to be completed by only painting it. the painting is easy and fan so people can paint it having conversation about this Memory Lane each other.
Street Profile Painting Project is not just a painting. It's a collaborative work painted by many people loving the place. In a creating process, many people can paint this art work with pleasant conversations and also the people seeing this painting is tempted to have communication each other. This process is very important for me. My work records not only this street profile but also communication produced on this street.
After completion, the Street Profile Painting Scroll was enlarged 2 times and printed on the 8m width cloth. A total of 9 clothes are displayed along this lane.
KASAO Atsushi Communication based artist
