Omoidemari - Tumblr Posts

The draft for a public art project proposal I want to present to the city hall in Ushibuka (the town south of me) next week. I had my coworker look over my Japanese. This is pretty par for the course for my drafts.

Today is my second meeting with Ushibuka city hall employees to discuss Omoidemari, a temporary public art project I've been working on for the past year and hope to launch for the month of April to coincide with the Ushibuka Haiya Festival. I'm both nervous and excited, and I can't help feel at a disadvantage discussing complicated matters in a second language. Still, they seem excited. Hopefully we can make this happen together.  More information on the project here.

I got interviewed about my Omoidemari for the newspaper! Decorating with Red Temari

Zachary Johnson (26), ALT of Kawaura Jr. High School from Illinois, US, is planning a participatory, public art project for the Ushibuka Haiya Festival on the 19th and 20th. He will be distributing red temari to those in attendance with the intent of having them decorate the area of the festival. Johnson came to Japan two years ago. From the experience of majoring in art history in college, he has held events such as a young comic artist exhibition with the intent of having the people of Amakusa enjoy art. Next, inspired by the depopulation of Amakusa, he plans to acquaint people with the places where locals hold memories as well as where visitors have felt the good points of Ushibuka. Currently, he’s in the middle of making three hundred red temari, which he calls Omoidemari (a combination of the word memory, omoide, and temari), inspired by Amakusa’s traditional craft, namban temari. His hope is for people to place thepiecesin their favorite locations in downtown Ushibuka, affixing them with messages about their memories of those places. He plans to distribute them at the Haiya Festival as well as through tourist locations. “I hope the red temari can catch peoples’ eyes and be a chance to create new activity”, said Johnson.

Satoru Ishimoto. Kumamoto Nichi Newspaper. April 10. 2014.