One hot Golden Week afternoon, a 110 metre stretch of street in Shibuya was turned into a public art carnival for the “Art Re-Public Tokyo”. There was music from the likes of Soil & “Pimp” Sessions and Toast Girl, performance art, live painting, and exhibits of everything from children’s picture books to sculpture.
A rare sight in Shibuya: the street between OI City and Tower Records shut off to traffic.Photo: William Andrews
Delicate wire sculptures, 'Vanishing Figure' by Etori Kenji.Photo: William Andrews
'Black Usagi' by Oak To All Relations.Photo: William Andrews
Live painting by several artists on one pillar.Photo: William AndrewsYutaka Kato's building block sculpture, being adjusted by the artist.Photo: William Andrews
Seen last year at the then-newly opened Nanzuka Underground gallery in Shirokane, 'Family' by Akiyoshi Mishima seemed a bit isolated in the open air.Photo: William Andrews
These gentlemen seem very lost at sea, or even rather marooned. Tange Kouki's 'Kusou Tsuribito'.Photo: William Andrews
Yuu Satou's 'horn man' occasionally moved, in tandem with a friend, or simply alone.Photo: William Andrews
Baguette-lover Toast Girl in concert!Photo: William Andrews
A performance by Oak To All Relations involved foil costumes, paint, masking tap...and inflated black creatures.Photo: William Andrews
One of the themes of the festival was nature and Mother Earth. Hiromi Nakajima's drawings are half-buried in greenery.Photo: William Andrews
William Andrews came to Japan in 2004. He first lived in Osaka, where he was a translator for Kansai Art Beat. Arriving in Tokyo in 2008, he now works as an writer, editor and translator. He writes a blog about Japanese radicalism and counterculture and one about Tokyo contemporary theatre. He is the author of Dissenting Japan: A History of Japanese Radicalism and Counterculture, from 1945 to Fukushima.
