After a few bumps along the way, two of my dust paintings are on display in a mini exhibition at Cafe 104.5, run by Blue Note Japan, near Ochaomizu station. Until when? That is still undecided. In fact, this experience seems to be unprecedented and that is to my advantage.

Cafe 104.5 usually has a main exhibition featuring the work of one artist on the stage and on the cafe’s walls as well as a mini exhibition of one piece of artwork by a different artist near the front entrance. Yes, one piece. As you can see by the photos, there are two paintings. Why? The curator loves my work! Isn’t that fantastic? He said that my work was on trend with the topic and the technique. It turns out that art related to the Anthropocene is a current trend. Who knew?

noun

1. 1. The current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.
2. Some geologists argue that the Anthropocene began with the Industrial Revolution.

Source: Google Dictionary

These paintings are about air pollution and how it circulates throughout the world. The dust samples show how human activity affects the composition of the dust. For example, dust collected near areas with heavy traffic have more black specks than that collected in a rural area. It is quite fascinating to see the differences in colour. I started making Anthropocene art after becoming sensitive to pollution in the air, specifically fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) and the yellow dust that blows in from China. Yes, it is probably not the healthiest form of art that I could make and yes, I do wear a mask at times when preparing the materials I use.

The curator liked the idea of the materials being specific to the geographical area and collected dust samples for me from the Ochanomizu area. I then filtered it and made several paintings for the project. The paintings then were supposedly too large for the space, and more paintings were made with dust from Saitama. Management then selected the ones they wanted to use from a few that the curator had chosen. As usual, the ones you expect to be chosen rarely are. It is always a surprise to see which ones other people like.

Cafe 104.5’s website is not yet updated with information related to this project, but I expect it will soon enough.

I would like to thank the Sato family and Mr. Tamura for their co-operation and support.