“Isshoni” Atelier

Operation Anonymous Portrait——Making montages with a recipe!!
Sun. Aug. 20 – Sun. Sep. 24 (Sun.), 2023
Closed on Mondays (except Sep. 18), Tue. Sep. 19.
Organized by Tokyo Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture

Foreword
In summer 2023, Tokyo Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery launched “Isshoni” Atelier, a series of diverse studio workshops focused on creative
expression, held in conjunction with each exhibition.
“Isshoni” Atelier programs are open in character and invite visitors to freely participate in the way they like. Anyone can drop byanytime, simply to look around or to get deeply involved in creation.
Our program this time, the first in the series, invited visitors to draw a portrait of someone based on recipes in the venue. It could bea portrait of someone they never met or someone familiar to them. (Their own portrait was of course OK!) As a result, the space became
filled with “anonymous portraits.” Participants used a recipe and let their imagination go. Selecting face parts that fit their desired image,they gave free play to their pen. Everyone—adults, children, people good at drawing and people bad at drawing—gathered together, relaxed,and had fun drawing someone’s picture or just gazing around at the completed portraits.
During the program’s 31 days, 1,458 people visited the atelier and enjoyed this occasion to freely create and express themselves
together with other people. Participants’ questionnaire responses revealed that they liked having the “freedom” to participate in different
ways, whether creating a portrait handily using face parts, as in the traditional game of Fukuwarai (Japanese “pin-the-tail-on-the donkey”;
players arrange paper cutouts of eyes, nose, and mouth on the outline of a face) or looking at the portraits displayed and trying toimagine their artist or model. We hope the social exchange born among participants at “Isshoni” Atelier through art created withacquaintances and complete strangers became an opportunity to think about a comfortable society where people enjoy living together.
Tokyo Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery

２Message
Adults, children, and people from abroad: a wide variety of people took part in the program this time.
A participant wondering, “Let me see, what shall I do?” while flipping through a stack of recipe files left by other participants. A participant,midway in conversation, voicing their thought aloud: “Oh, I like this!” A participant happily admiring someone else’s picture . . . These area few images I have of participants at work creating portraits while interacting with other participants there, that day, or no longer there.
A participant drawing his own likeness in a knit cap while saying, “I don’t usually wear this kind of knit cap, actually.” A participant boldly
choosing face parts without hesitation, but then dotting in a beard with slow, painstaking care in what was, clearly, a self-portrait. Laughing,joking participants, holding parts beside the other’s face for comparison while creating each other’s portraits: “Are these your eyes”?
As the days went by, new portraits steadily replaced old ones, even on days when I was not there. I arrived each time with feelings ofexpectation: what kind of pictures will appear today?
I too had an enjoyable time together with everyone taking part (the people I met and even those I did not meet).
UDAGAWA Junko
Artist: Sculptor UDAGAWA Junko

After graduating from an art junior college, Udagawa Junko began creating sculptures of familiar animals, such as catsand birds, using newspaper and other materials. Besides exhibiting her works every two years, she has since 2016served as lecturer for the "Hama Kids Art Club" workshop for children at the Yokohama Civic Art Gallery.

３Procedure
1. Write a recipe: materials, method, the artist’s advice ☆
2. Choose face parts and draw with a pen
3. Hang portrait on wall and view and enjoy- Make or don’t make a recipe. Either is OK!
- Artworks cannot be taken home. Enjoy taking a commemorative photo.

４

Program
Direction and Curation: UDAGAWA Junko (Sculptor), MON Asuka (Tokyo Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery)
Illustration: UDAGAWA Junko
Venue Decoration Design: Lucy+K
Venue Construction: Super・Factory Inc.
Art Direction and Design of Publication: TKADA Yui（Allright Graphics）
Title Logo Design: MATSUO TasukuPublication Printing: Kanto Tosho Co., Ltd
Translation: Brian AMSTUTZ (Brian Amstutz Communications)Photography: IKENOYA Yuka (YUKAI), Tokyo Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery
Cooperation: COLORWORKS Co.
ReportPlanning, Editing: MON Asuka
Translation: Brian AMSTUTZ (Brian Amstutz Communications)
Art Direction, Design and Editing: TKADA Yui（Allright Graphics）
Design and Editing: WANG Ruiyu (Company2)
Printing: Kanto Tosho Co., Ltd
Publisher: Tokyo Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture
Publication Date: March 2024--*Frames for portraits in the venue were produced by Upcycle.
Cooperation: COLORWORKS Co. Super・Factory Inc.
© 2024 Tokyo Shibuya Koen-dori Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture