In the spirit of Kintsugi (usually meant for repairing busted ceramic pottery items with gold – and gluey goop but you don’t notice – to “emphasize” the imperfections), i repainted the worn-off top line of the haiku on the postbox at the “Rural Caprine Farm” in gold paint.
Created this functional poetic installation (and the “inexact doppelgänger” on canvas) in 2018, scant days before meeting Ryoko.
As it goes, this might be my most seen piece of art. And not only is it a functioning daily mailbox also – due to the exposure to elements and whatnot – the piece is constantly changing and evolving. Ergo: wabisabi / beauty in decay. Besides many insta-snaps, at least one patron painted the postbox itself.
I though about remixing the original poem to “Yesterday’s letter” or even, “Tomorrow, a letter?” but stuck with the original for various reasons.
You know there’s also a poem on the other side added in 2020 right? Was done the same night as my global mailbox painting exhibition on-site at the goat farm for an event put on by a design magazine who featured the postbox and the related painting in an article about artists, designers and artisan businesses in Okayama – It’s all very circular.
Funny enough, i wrote a similar poem with a shodo-style painting during my “Japan 1.0 days” in early 1990s… maybe it’s here somewhere?
First poem was added in 2018, but before that, a painting of a blue postbox, then the real postbox, added poem, then added poem to painting…
and now freshed up in 2023. what mysteries await?
Meanwhile at the Goat Farm
My favorite folks in this whole archipelago.
One day we’re going to have a band with me, Mac, Ichiro & Ryoko,… in the meantime, coffees for us, goat ice cream for him + paninos and his appy plate.
We played several records including new Wilco (who are playing in Osaka in March), another one I can’t remember, and a band which stole my name of “Foreign Correspondent”.
{I also recorded another really lousy ukulele song, “this time tomorrow” by the Kinks, I may even be foolish enough to float this out to the universe on some secret channel because I evidently have no shame for creativite expression, right?}
