Community Art - Tumblr Posts
On Sunday I'm launching Candy Chang's international Before I Die project in Kawaura. It's Japan's second installation of the project, and I'm excited to bring it to my rural community. I'm especially looking forward to the potential social impact of this piece. Kawaura is a shrinking, elderly community of 5,000 people, so "before I die, I want to..." becomes a more immediate statement here. Beyond the elderly, I hope this project encourages the local young people to dream big. Amakusa is a somewhat poor, isolated island, and many of my students when asked what they want to be, reply office worker, nurse, or farmer. There's nothing wrong with those careers, but it's always nurse, never doctor. I hope this wall makes them think deeper about the possibilities in their lives. It goes up on Sunday and stays up for the month of September.
The "Before I Die" wall went up on 9/7 with the surprise help of local post office workers and an elderly bar owner. Day by day it continues to fill up. Living in a spread out town of 5,000, I never thought people would take to it so quickly, but I'm so happy they have. Check out the construction shots and get more info here.
Exhibition opening. One of mine is visible to the left of the door.
paper sculpture i made a while back :)