70m sea wall mural with high school students
I made this mural in 2021 at Ohama beach in Sumoto, which is on Awaji Island in Japan. As part of my “regional revitaliser” role at Sumoto city, we made the Ohama mural project to bring some life and colour to a grey car park at Ohama beach.
What is a “regional revitaliser” (地域おこし協力隊 – chiiki okoshi kyouryokutai）- in Japan?
It is a contract for 3 years with a regional “city” (not usually urban, just an area of countryside) that is supposed to bring life and interest to places that have a declining population. The aim is to bring tourists in, as well as encouraging people to relocate from the big cities. They also want to make the places desirable so that people don’t leave, 0r if young people go away to university, they want to come back to their “hometown”. In order to do this the city employs “regional revitalisers” to create events, projects, open businesses, make improvements etc. I was employed from 2019-2023 and in that time I started my indigo business https://aiaii.blue/
as well as creating murals and various other projects. There are thousands of these positions across rural Japan and at least a hundred or so are non-Japanese people, as far as I know.
Ohama Hekiga (ohama mural)
We made a project with Mr Takada and the art club of Sumoto High School’s art club. It is a 70m x 1m wall on the carpark of the south side of Ohama beach.
洲本高校の美術部と一緒にプロジェクトを作りました。大浜の南方に70ｍｘ1ｍの駐車場壁です。
Although we started in August, by the time we had done 4 workshops and decided on the design, it was already November. We completed the painting bit by bit in 3 weeks after school and on weekends.
8月が始まったけど、4つのワークショップをしてから、デザインを決めて、塗るのは11月になりました。3週間に週末、学校の後とかちょこちょこ塗っていきました。
It is a very long and thin shape, so we put it into 3 zones; the sea is purple, pink and blue, the sky is pink, yellow and orange, the mountain is yellow and green. It looks very bright but nevertheless they are still colours found in nature!
長細いの形なので、3つのゾーンにしました。海は青と紫、空はピンクと黄色、山は黄色、黄緑、緑。派手な色だけど、自然も派手だと思います！
After deciding on the themes and colours the participants could paint freely. We deliberately painted directly onto the wall, without using chalk first, to keep it fresh.
テーマと色を決めてから参加者が自由に絵を描きました。フレッシュのためにわざとチョークの下書きなどをしていなかった。
I often use wavy lines in my painting, and they have multiple, flexible meanings. The border between the sea and the sky, the sea and the sand, the land and sky, the waves on the water or in the air, to give the picture rhythm.
私の絵に波線をよく描きます。この波線はおおく、柔らかいという意味があって、海と空の境・浜と海の境・音波・絵のリズム。
The central part in yellow, orange and pink is the sky and thread section. Within the gradations of colours you can see significant patterns emerging. These patterns are based on the local fishermen’s coats (‘shishu donza’) embroidery designs. The embroidery thread connects people, place and history.
壁の真ん中のパートは空と糸のコンセプトで、黄色、ピンク、オレンジを使っています。夕焼けグラデーション色のなかに大切な幾何学模様があります。この模様は淡路島のとくどく漁師の「刺繍ドンザ」から来ました。糸が人、場所、歴史をつなげる。
Finally, we decided the title and subtitle towards the end of the painting. ”Ohama Hekiga” just means Ohama mural, and we thought that would help it be easy to look up online. The subtitle means “Life fabric nurtured by mountain and sea”.
ついにタイトルとサブタイトルを決めました。「大浜壁画」はシンプルで調べやすいの理由で選んだ。サブタイトルは「 海と山がはぐくむ生命のつながり」にしました。
I hope that this is an artwork that all kinds of people can enjoy. It is for the local people who walk there everyday, with their friends, dogs or kids, or visit for fishing from time to time. It is also for the many kinds of visitors who come to enjoy Awaji Island; the bikers, people on holiday to celebrate special occasions or just passing through. It would be nice if they saw it from far away and were compelled to walk closer and closer until they can see the tiny details, painted with love by Awaji island people.
この壁画はいろんな人のための作品です。大浜で毎日散歩している人がやっぱり多く友達と、犬と、一人でも、子供と遊んだり魚を釣りしています。または島外のバイカー、BBQグループ、洲本温泉の観光者など淡路島に遊びに来る人にも見える。カラフル壁を遠くから見てどんどん近くに行きたくなって洲本の人が描いた絵を楽しめたらすばらしいです。
We were blessed with rainbows and beautiful sunsets while painting this wall.
