Scanogram - Tumblr Posts

The first project I want to exhibit at my jr. high is Face Your Pockets, a project created in 2007 by Russian artists Timur Akhmetov and Yulia Yakushova. The project aims to show what the possessions we carry with us say about who we are. To do that it invites anyone to place their face and the contents of their pockets and bag onto a scanner and his scan. Since 2007, hundreds of people have participated from all over the globe. I'm excited to have the jr. high students participate as well!

Currently the project's website is down, but you can see a lot of good scanograms on flickr here. It's odd to look at how many of what I carry with me now are things I didn't own or use in America. The cloth in the lower left corner is for drying my hands, as paper towels are a rarity in Japanese schools. The small oval above my left eye is my signature stamp that I use to sign in at work and stamp important documents. Even within my pencil case (ubiquitous among students at my school) is the red-topped Japanese glue that I'd never seen in the US. Then of course, there's my car key. Never owning a car was a dream I had to give up after moving to rural, public transit-less Japan. It's fascinating to look at the other Face Your Pockets photos and see the wide variety of objects they take with them.

Zachary Trebellas. Sandwich/Sandoicchi. Mixed media scanogram. 2015.

This is the second piece of several I have planned focusing on the Japanese habits that have replaced my American ones. In this instance the custom of wrapping food or other objects in cloth has replaced wrapping lunch in plastic wrap.  —— This is part of the series I’m working on, Nippo Greco American, exploring my relationship with the three ethnic groups I in some way identify with.