Main fundraiser photo

Aaron's Japan Art Residency!



My name is Aaron Mannino. I am a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Bucks/Montgomery County Pennsylvania, but my abiding interest lies 6700 miles away. Japanese culture has been the most significant and lasting source of inspiration in my life. Though I have never been to Japan, I am constantly astounded at how a place so distant, its aesthetic and even its language can seem so familiar. I have structured a Self-Directed Artist Residency in the city of Kanazawa to explore that seeming familiarity with directness. I am calling it SESSHOKU (the Japanese word for Contact)

As an artist, Japan has provided a pathway toward larger concepts of space, form, color and time, and through an artistic practice I articulate this influence. I want to pursue this course of discovery to its fullest  and graduate from a years of secondary cultural experiences here  in the States, to a primary one in Japan.

Follow this link to my website to learn more about the projects that I produced as a resident artist at Philadelphia's own Shofuso Japanese House and Garden and beyond!


SESSHOKU starts with paper. I've been a dedicated collector of ephemera (posters, postcards, ticket stubs and brochures) from anything I've done that is even slightly Japan related. I am in the process of deconstructing, shredding and pulping this collection and turning it into sheets of handmade paper under the instruction of Winnie Radolan. Each new sheet of Washi will be a blank canvas that I will take on my journey.

Sesshoku will use numerous means to document my primary experiences in Japan. I will be using it as a surface to transfer polaroid imagery, observational contour line drawing, writing, etc. 
The process with polaroid imagery being transfered to my handmade paper will most strongly represent the literal contact between my secondary and primary experience of Japan, as well as my previously general experience of the culture to a specific and grounded one. I will even use local materials such as leaves, grasses, teas and  produce to make natural dyes so that the papers will be suffused with Sesshoku!

In addition to the works on paper, I will be taking a series of durational video works that I call "living snapshots" that reveal the hidden vitality of the spaces I inhabit and frequend during Sesshoku. Between still images and video, I intend to explore the nature of experience itself and various ways of documentation.

Your generous donations will be used exclusively for costs of travel and materials to make SESSHOKU possible. The cost of airfare is a significant roadblock in this ambitious endeavor.  SESSHOKU is also a seed project because it has the potential for future applications. This journey to Japan will be an opportunity to develop collaborative relationships, and open a channel of exchange, as my papermaking will continue until I have used every last scrap of my collection!

I am committed to initiating SESSHOKU by Fall 2016, but I need your help to make that happen! Thank you all in advance for your consideration and your help :)

Organizer

Aaron Mannino
Organizer
Chalfont, PA

Your easy, powerful, and trusted home for help

  • Easy

    Donate quickly and easily.

  • Powerful

    Send help right to the people and causes you care about.

  • Trusted

    Your donation is protected by the  GoFundMe Giving Guarantee.