Exhibition of sustainable production held at skateboarding park in Hioki, Kagoshima

PUBLISHED Nov 24, 2021

Hiroshi and Mayumi Tanaka, encouraging visitors to the exhibition

Cue Culture Base, a skateboarding park in Hioki, Kagoshima City, is now holding “Ash DESIGN & CRAFT FAIR,” a design and craft event.

This year’s event, the 14th of its kind, began on November 20 in Kagoshima and Miyazaki, and 57 stores and businesses and 83 groups of craftspeople are involved. Cue Culture Base is a “culture park with a focus on skateboarding” that also holds art exhibitions and sessions. This is their first time taking part in this event.

Hiroshi Tanaka, a skateboarder with 20 years of experience, renovated a tea factory and opened the facility in March this year. Surrounded by acres of tea fields, Hiroshi holds skateboarding sessions, classes, and competitions. His works for Ash are on display on the second floor overlooking the skateboarding area. He creates his artworks by transferring photos onto wooden panels and old skateboards using gel medium. He said that he was inspired to create these pieces after thinking, “What can I do with skateboards that are thrown away when they are no longer needed?”

At the entrance on the first floor, organic cotton dresses from Maison de Emma, a sewing atelier that his wife Mayumi opened last December, are on display. She is conscious of sustainability and the SDGs regarding the materials she uses, and for this exhibition, she used cotton provided by the Peace India Project, which aims to “protect children from unsafe child labor and ensure school attendance in cotton-producing areas in India.”

The common theme is “the future of production” with consideration for the environment. Mayumi said: “We live in an age where clothing is easily and cheaply available, but sewing is the only part that cannot be automated. There is always a human hand involved. I hope it will give people a chance to think about why it is so cheap when it takes so much time and work to manufacture it.”

The event is open from 12:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. It runs until December 5.

  • Organic cotton dresses by Maison de Emma and its creator, Mayumi Tanaka

  • Hiroshi Tanaka's photographic works using the transfer technique

  • The skateboarding area at Cue Culture Base

  • Second floor seating at Cue Culture Base

POPULAR CONTENT

SEE MORE