shashasha

“They dot the city as if pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle.
They stick to buildings like scab covering wounds.
Their wood grain seems to shine in unison with the naked concrete and building materials that surround them.
As the thin plywood blocks all access to the buildings, it fills their interior with imagined traces and events.”
— from the artist’s statement

In 2008, Japanese photographer Masahito Yamamoto began photographing plywood installed to block access to construction sites, unfinished buildings and alleys. Eventually, he came up with the name Tiger Park’ for these temporary architectural elements. All the photographs show scenes discovered as part of his daily life, none were sought out. Reading through the book (which can be re-arranged freely as the pages are not bound) the temporary fixtures take on a deeper meaning – as gatekeepers of what’s to come, as signs of change, of upgrades, of deterioration, as strangely fitting low-grade additions to their immediate surroundings.