Shutterstreet

2019—ongoing

Shutterstreet originates from the Japanese word シャッタ ー通り, a neologism that indicates a shopping street with lowered shutters. This large-scale installation replicates a shopping street where small businesses appear to have ceased their activities due to social and economic upheavals, such as failing competition against other brands and the internet.

As part of this ongoing work, I gradually collect shop shutters from different cities internationally by offering shop owners new shutters in exchange for their old ones.

The aesthetic aspect and the physical presence of the closed-down shutters are the subjects of this installation work. They stand as sculptural presences, architectural ghosts, and ruins of capitalism, a sort of anti-monument. As a symbol, the roller shutters recreate the image of a global phenomenon in the small space of this installation.

Shutterstreet, 2019 (ongoing)
shop-shutters, dimensions variable

Installation views of Shutterstreet in the inner court of Palazzo Carignano, Turin. Produced by Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation as part of the “Circular Economy & Art” project

Shutterstreet (Tokyo) is the first shop shutter to enter the ongoing installation Shutterstreet.

Handwritten notes are attached to the shop shutter, expressing messages of gratitude and appreciation, written by former customers of the closed-down business (a second-hand bookstore called “Riverside”), and revealing anecdotes of its fading-away reality.

Installation view of Shutterstreet (Tokyo) in the exhibition “Foreshadows”, at Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo, Tokyo, 2019

Shop-shutter, hand-written notes on scraps
240 x 160 x 36 cm

Photo: TAKAHASHI Kenji
Courtesy Tokyo Arts and Space