In early December I got word of a photo shoot I had the opportunity to work on in Shanghai. I had never been to Asia before, so I asked for them to fly me home out of Tokyo. I especially wanted to visit the city of Fukuoka, Japan on the invitation of my friend Honda. He runs a zine and, in his words, a "skate support center" called PFK - Pure Fun Keep. We had corresponded over email for a few years - my friend Pat had met him in Bolivia, and my other friend Mike actually visited his strange, lost-boys style jungle concrete wonderland. It had a certain mystery to it, and was something that I just had to see in person.
The entire place was built by basically a 3-man crew. Pool skating doesn't really exist in Japan, but they were determined to learn how to do it, so they had to build it themselves. I shot a bunch of super8 film and interviewed Honda for a short I’m getting ready to make about my experience there.
Honda organized an event he named TREND KILL, where his band (Hurricane Grind) played a score to my super8 footage from Arizona. On my first night in Japan, I met with the band and we made a quick and dirty recording of their set from which I was able to edit my film. They rented a rehearsal studio for the night, where we hung a quick photo show, the band played a quick set, and we screened my film.
This was my first time screening a film in public. I had only brought my hard drive to Japan, so I borrowed a computer and set to work chopping up super8 to sync up with the rehearsal takes from the band. When the film screening / live show actually started, and I was in a dark room full of strangers being moved by the combination of the band's music and my film, it really was a profound experience for me, one that cemented my commitment as an artist.
I was so energized by doing this kind of spontaneous event that I hit up everyone I knew about doing a show in Tokyo. They all laughed (politely) at my request, saying it was basically impossible to come up with a space on 3 days notice.
The next morning I flew into Tokyo, took a few hours of public transportation and landed at my apartment around 5pm. When I turned on my phone I got an email from my print exchange friend Takeshi saying that he had come up with a space for a 1-night show, but they were only free tomorrow. Did I want it? I was seriously so exhausted; I could have easily relaxed and just been a tourist for a few days. But after counting out 2 full seconds of deliberation, I emailed him back and said yeah! I figured if I wanted to do a show on 24 hours notice, in a giant city that I had never been to, and didn't really know anybody in, the first order of business was to make a flyer. I sent that to every single person I could possibly think of and, thanks to THEM, i got the word out. (Thanks again everybody).
Next I took a trip to Kinkos to actually make the prints for the exhibition. I ended up showing a preview of my book in progress, Freedom Club, which is 4 years of documentation of an unauthorized construction project in a vacant factory in New Jersey.
The morning of, I made a last-minute flyer and spent the rest of the day promoting in person and on the internet. 6pm came and people actually started showing up! Even if 5 people had attended, I would have been psyched. We ended up having 50-75 people come through over the course of the night and I sold a ton of prints and zines. It was so much more than I could have possibly hoped for.
I have to take a minute to express my EXTREME gratitude to everyone who helped me put together a show in literally 24 hrs. Through this exhibition I was able to deeply connect with my audience in a way that has made me re-imagine my definition of success. I have so many people to thank, but I want to start with Sergej Vutuc, Bill Daniel and PFK Honda for inspiring me to push my work into the world on my own terms, with my own resources, by ANY means necessary. These three are relentless believers in their own mission, something I've struggled with lately, but I feel a renewed sense of faith in my work because of this show. Jai Tanju and Takeshi Abe, I literally couldn't have done this without your help - thank you and the entire Print Exchange Program for keeping the spirit alive. Cheryl Dunn, for bringing me on to help her shoot in China, a free round trip ticket I was able to surf on over to Japan. Jersey Drew, for allowing me to document what is ultimately "his" renegade construction project. The good people of Tokyo who came out on faith alone that I would show them something worth looking at. And lastly, all of YOU that re-posted my flyer, texted a friend, @'ed somebody, or in any other way helped draw the crowd in, THANK YOU for being part of my life and my work. ARIGATO GOZAIMASU!!
