Exhibited at the Minokamo Culture Forest Museum, Gifu Prefecture, Japan from February 14, 2014.
Ōta-juku (after Hiroshige) is a collaborative artwork in 35 parts. Jack brushed a line image of the Ando Hiroshige print Ōta-juku from the Kisokaido series. The line image was then cut into 35 separate “tiles”.
18 artists from the sister cities of Minokamo in Japan, and 17 artists from Dubbo in Australia, were invited to re-imagine this famous Kiso River image. Each artist would bring courteous homage to the great Hiroshige in a spirit of creative cooperation and goodwill. Each “tile” is 14 x 15.5cm on 535gsm watercolour paper and has a portion of the brushed outline copied from Hiroshige’s original image.
The exhibition launch at Minokamo Culture Forest on 15 February 2014 was a great success, with around 150 visitors, including Mayor Hiroto Fujii and Minokamo City officials attending. Jack also conducted a calligraphy demonstration where he brushed Japanese names in English script as individual gifts to Minokamo citizens.
Minokamo Culture Forest Museum, Day one for Ota Juku (after Hiroshige), Feb 14 2014
Japanese names in English, calligraphy gift to exhibition visitors, Minokamo Culture Forest Museum, Feb 15 2014