Posts Tagged ‘ Compound Gallery portland ’

Uncovering present-day Japan through a 131 day, 34,033km journey.

Survival Drive is the incredible journey taken by two artists to document the present-day of Japan. Traveling by car, painter Reijiro Mochizuki (a.k.a. Rei) and photographer Shouichiro Fukuda (a.k.a. Hooky) spent 131 days crossing the country, clocking up 34,033km in the process. They’re not the first artists to undertake such a journey. Some 200 years ago, the great ukiyo-e artist Hokusai Katsushika made a series of woodblock prints called ‘36 views of Mount Fuji’, depicting the volcano in different seasons. Hokusai traveled across Japan capturing not just the landscapes, but also the local people and their daily lives. The journey he took to complete the series was a form of art itself, and traveling was the way of life for the artist back then. To interpret Hokusai and his works, Reijiro Mochizki and Souichiro Fukuda undertook this immense journey across Japan, paying their respects to the old master and creating a series of sketches and photographs of the things they encountered along the way. For this book, we carefully selected the best of their work, along with maps of journey, photos of recording devices, and extracts from their blog.

This show will be the U.S. release of the book “Survival Drive” and will feature art from the book, live painting and new pieces created while the artists visit Portland.

Opening reception at Compound Gallery

August 6, 2009 at 7 p.m.

Show runs 8.6.09 to 8.30.09