‘In This Town’ is a new street sculpture by Dutch design duo Studio Spass, created in collaboration with curator Tetsuya Goto, NO Architects, poet Yoshinori Henguchi, and the local community.
Commissioned by the Konohana Sakuya Art Association as part of the Konohana Permanentale 100+, the work transforms the concrete river walls of Shorenjigawa Park into a bold visual composition of white graphic brushstrokes—echoing the park’s transformation from polluted riverbed to cultural hub.
The strokes hide fragmented katakana characters for ‘art,’ inviting reflection on where art begins and ends. In a rare collaboration between graphic design and poetry, Henguchi’s text responds directly to the rhythm and space of the visual design, creating a unique dialogue between word and image. Shaped by voices from the local community, ‘In This Town’ is both a celebration of place and a poetic marker of renewal.
At the ‘Konohana Art Picnic’ held on Culture Day, November 3, 2024, Studio Spass held a workshop with local residents. Through dialogue and shared exploration, they deepened their understanding of the area’s layered context—from its industrial history and the diverted Shorenji River, to the community’s hopes for new beginnings through art and public space.
Studio Spass responded to this evolving story with a series of white, rhythmic brushstrokes painted onto the park’s concrete walls—relics of its river past. The strokes evoke both motion and transformation, capturing the shift from waterway to cultural landscape. Embedded within them are fragmented katakana characters for “art,” subtly provoking questions about where and how art takes form in public space.
In response, poet Yoshinori Henguchi created a text that not only draws from the voices and thoughts of local residents—particularly children—but also directly engages with the composition, rhythm, and spatial layout created by the graphic design.
From Sketch to Street: The Bold Process Behind ‘In This Town’
This exhibition showcases a collection of sketches, research materials, and visual studies that trace the social design process behind a new public sculpture for Shorenjigawa Park in Osaka. The project explores the intersection of form, language, and place through a collaborative and context-driven design approach.
A central element of the exhibition is a series of 140 Riso-printed sketches that examine the relationship between billboard-like visual systems and the abstraction of Japanese characters—kanji, hanzi, and katakana—as pure graphic forms. These playful explorations reveal how typographic elements can shift into spatial and sculptural expressions.
Asahisonoma is an experimental exhibition space located in Osaka’s Konohana-ku district. Founded by curator Tetsuya Goto and NO Architects, the space supports interdisciplinary projects that challenge traditional formats and embrace collaborative cultural production.
Photography: StudioSpass
