Studio Kura
Fukuoka, Japan [link]
June 2019
“a mere appendage”
Solo Exhibition
June 22-23rd, 2019
Drawing tools purchased locally from large companies, Richards’ drawings consider the universal trend of DIY. In Japan the common is uncommon, though familiar in form and function. By making meticulous drawings the mundane local tools are elevated -fetishized- and granted a status (or agency) from which to open conversations about a dual state in which the labor class can be precariously valued, while cultural production and DIY hobby-ism fulfills the intellectual laborer.
In America Richards has been drawing tools and creating art installations from Home Depot products for several years. His interest lies in the consumers ability to purchase DIY equipment as a means of self-empowerment, building online communities through Youtube tutorials, and the contradictions inherent to these practices.
Drawings
Acrylic, graphite on paper, 11″x 7.5″
Hand tools purchased from a local Japanese DIY store, discussing both the precarity of labor and the luxury of DIY.
(Titles from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”)
Oh there you go, bringing class into it again 
a mandate from the masses 
Listen: distributing swords is no basis for a system of government 
24mm: the violence inherent in the system 
15mm: the violence inherent in the system 
12mm: the violence inherent in the system 
An anarcho-syndicalist commune 
Take a turn: executive officer for the week 
Three way: help, I’m being repressed 
hangin’ on to outdated imperialist dogma 
Don’t fool yourself: a self perpetuating autocracy 
A Capitalist Smear Tactic
Prints
Japanese woodblock prints (water based), 10″x 7″
Edition of 3
Hand-cut blocks diagramming the profile of power tool cutting implements.
Profile: V Groove 
Profile: Rabbet 
Profile: Round Over 
Profile: Round Nose 
Profile: Ogee 
Profile: Dovetail 
Profile: Dado 
Profile: Cove 
Profile: Chamfer 
Profile: Beading