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”)

Prints

Japanese woodblock prints (water based), 10″x 7″

Edition of 3

Hand-cut blocks diagramming the profile of power tool cutting implements.