I used to be born and raised in what’s now Koreatown. Earlier than it grew to become Koreatown, it was, not less than in my rapid neighborhood, filled with Japanese immigrants. However there have been no Japanese markets, so there was this truck that might park actually throughout the road from our home and honk the horn. The truck was run by a Japanese man. I’d go there with my grandmother; I used to be all the time enamored by the Japanese sweet that was hanging on the cabinets. It was as massive as a UPS truck, however it was inexperienced. It had a middle aisle and on each side had been cabinets and cupboards. There have been sinks with a number of crushed ice with seafood on it. You may get greens, rice, seaweed — just about what you’ll see at a Japanese market immediately — however it was all on this truck. Most of my recollections are visceral. I bear in mind the proprietor sporting an apron. I bear in mind him sporting black rubber boots. I bear in mind the size — I used to be fascinated by the size. I bear in mind the scent of the fish.
The proprietor’s identify was Mr. Hatakeyama. My mother noticed him in Little Tokyo, a yr or two earlier than the pandemic. Whereas placing this venture collectively, I put the phrase out to my community of Japanese People saying I used to be in search of him. Then Leslie Ito, who’s the director of the Armory Heart for the Arts in Pasadena, emailed me and stated, “I feel there was once a Hatakeyama at Nishi Buddhist Temple in Little Tokyo.” I emailed the Buddhist temple, and fairly instantly, they emailed again to say, “Effectively, there was this one Hatakeyama, however sadly he handed away final yr.” They despatched me a photograph that they had of him, and I instantly confirmed it to my mother — and it was him. We missed him by a yr or so.
For this venture, as I typically do, I began with watercolors. I’m a sound artist, however I began as a visible artist. Drawing helps me form of digest what I’ve — it’s like a map. As I did these watercolors, I remembered among the objects I recalled within the truck. Finally, I used to be considering it’d be good to have larger-than-life sculptures of those objects, so I made a decision to make them into lanterns.
Essentially the most repeated merchandise was the Botan Rice Sweet — it’s form of a jelly sq., however it’s wrapped on this see-through paper that’s edible, after which that’s wrapped in a wax paper. It’s like Cracker Jacks, in that there’s a toy inside. As a child, it was in all probability probably the most enjoyable merchandise you would purchase off the truck. I made a fish that appeared type of dehydrated — I used to be attempting to allude to that dried seafood that we ate on a regular basis watching TV. I made a giant bag of rice. I needed to make the size. And daikon — I like daikon. I feel it’s the funniest root vegetable. My grandfather used to pickle daikon within the storage that’s now my recording studio. He used to have all these barrels in there and it smelled horrible — this vinegary, rubbish scent. That’s the place I make all my music.
To pay homage to the inexperienced truck that drove round his neighborhood, Alan Nakagawa created “Inexperienced Truck Recall Pedora.” Then he took it for a experience round Los Angeles to among the neighborhoods the place the assorted vans went: Okay-town, Mar Vista, J flats in Hollywood, Boyle Heights, Crenshaw Sq..
(Stephanie Aviles)
We ended up popping the lanterns onto my truck and driving round Los Angeles to among the neighborhoods the place the assorted vans went: Okay-town, Mar Vista, J flats in Hollywood, Boyle Heights, Crenshaw Sq.. Stephanie Aviles adopted me and documented the entire thing. It was a lovely form of homage. Visually, it’s a lovely factor to see all these weirdly formed lanterns, driving via town. In Japan, they’ve these massive festivals the place they’ve ginormous lanterns they usually have taiko drumming, they usually’re these massive, outdated, heavy issues they usually put them on their shoulders — there might be 50 or 100 folks carrying them round a village or city or metropolis. I’m certain that influenced my path on this as properly.
Via all the evening, as I drove round L.A., I had a two-hour loop of Japanese pop tunes from the ’60s and ’70s taking part in on my automotive stereo. It felt like we had been channeling the previous — like we had been touring again in time to when the cohesion of this immigrant inhabitants was a little bit bit extra seen.
Alan Nakagawa is an interdisciplinary artist with archiving tendencies, primarily working with sound, typically incorporating varied media and dealing with communities and their histories. His first guide, “A.I.R.Head: the anatomy of an artist in residence” revealed by Writ Giant Tasks, maps his creative trajectory that led to his 9 artist residencies in six years. Nakagawa is a recipient of two Artwork Issues grants, Metropolis of Los Angeles Artist Fellowship, California Neighborhood Basis Mid-Profession Artist Fellowship and a Monbusho Scholar. @nakagawa2015
