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Tokyo's Urban Scenes Filled by the Imagination of Artist, Erin McCluskey

Open Call, Open Residence / AIR3331

Tokyo's Urban Scenes Filled by the Imagination of Artist, Erin McCluskey
Residency length: 1 month (August - September, 2017)
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Erin McCluskey arrived in Tokyo from Toronto, Canada ready to grab a bike and trek the city's extensive urban scene. Carrying her backpack equipped with a chair and tools, and the notebook that never left her side, she aimed to see, explore, and sketch the city at each moment. Erin took action right away to gather her artistic material from inspiration found in the city itself.

In Erin's past works spun from Toronto's urban life, one finds the city transformed into a quirky and colorful place by her unique vision. It is as though we move in time with Erin's own experiences felt between every encounter with her subjects. With even fairy tale or folkloric characters and motifs, viewers can perceive daily city life in new and romantic ways.

The AIR 3331 Open Call program offered Erin the challenge of taking up Tokyo as her first overseas city as subject matter. In addition, as her first time in Japan and her first residency, Erin experienced everything with fresh eyes. At the heart of Tokyo's urban core, AIR 3331 provided the perfect base for envisioning the city through her own imagination. From sketching outdoors in the middle of bustling Ueno Park and Shinjuku, to joining a local Chiyoda city festival, all sights were drawn up in Erin's style to become fantastic places.
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With sketchbooks and a wide array of painted artworks in the making, at the end of her residency, Erin decided to hold an open studio event in the Nishiki-cho Shared Studio , where she worked daily after traveling the streets of Tokyo. Erin's work area was overflowing with the internalized map of her Tokyo experiences - from train lines, museum tickets, sketches on the go, to journal entries and famous romantic poems. During her residence, she even had the chance to make a collaboration painting with fellow resident, Kyungwon Yoon , from South Korea.
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Erin's desk corner in the Nishiki-cho Studio attested to the wide network of places and objects that became her personal map of Tokyo. She transformed the city into an alternative Tokyo as a fairytale of urban life through her imagination. The AIR 3331 team looks forward to what kind of metropolis Erin will envision in her next travels from city to city.
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We hope the creativity of our past participants will inspire some ideas for your project proposal to AIR 3331!

AIR 3331 OPEN CALL
Residencies between: May 1, 2018 - March 29 2019 (1-3 months per residency)
Deadline: March 30, 2018
Details: https://goo.gl/Gf2hdo

AIR 3331: Emily

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