Yard 2020-2022
by Kohei Maekawa

 
 
Housing, private property, and land ownership are some of the strangest ideas in the world.
 
Photographer Kohei Maekawa was drawn to a bizarre garden he discovered by chance while working as a pizza delivery man in a suburb of Tokyo.
 
A coffee-can altar of rabbits and plants, dioramas of Mount Fuji and the Tokyo Tower, and objects assembled from hula hoops and tires…
 
These exteriors called “Yard Art” created by ordinary residents are decorated with a large number of toys and household items that they have collected for their personal enjoyment.
 
This work, Maekawa turns its lens on creations made out of resident’s extreme desire to offer their own possessions and expressions before the community, or to leave them as a legacy, points to a narrative about the pursuit of happiness in today's consumer society.
 
Each image, in which the strobe light is applied to a number of compressed ornaments and their outlines are emphasized, is a detailed portrait of the materials and unique methods of decorated Yard Art.
 
Maekawa provides us with the “Topography” necessary to imagine the backgrounds of the Yard Art's inhabitants, their personalities and living environments.
 
Kohei Maekawa lives and works in Tokyo, Japan.
 
To view more of Kohei Maekawa, please visit his instagram