Notes from Jinny is a participatory art project in which artists and creators walk freely through Jingumae 2-chome, observe the neighborhood from their own point of view, and record it in the “Jinny Notebook,” an original notebook made for the project.
Power lines crisscrossing the alleys, the colors and shapes of buildings, something that caught the eye in a shop front, a conversation exchanged there, an idea that suddenly came to mind.
Through sketches, drawings, words or whatever way suits them, participants freely express the inspiration they received from the neighborhood.
One draws the whole streetscape, another turns to the shapes of buildings and alleys, and another records a small thing found in a shop front, or words that came to them while walking.
Even walking the same streets, no two people frame the same scene.
The 26 finished Jinny Notebooks record Jingumae 2-chome as each participant found it through their own eyes.
In this exhibition, the notebooks are shown in the streetlamp display cases of Jinny Street Gallery.
Peek into someone’s “Notes,” then walk the real streets. Prompted by the scenes and small discoveries drawn in the notebooks, the familiar neighborhood starts to look a little different.
Notes from Jinny is an attempt to share, through the eyes of artists, the very pleasure of looking at a city.
The Jinny Notebook has a tall, narrow form that recalls the streetlamp display cases where Jinny Street Gallery shows its exhibitions, and its cover carries a letterpress-printed map of Jingumae 2-chome, giving the memory of the neighborhood a form you can touch. A round window is cut into the top of the cover, through which you can glimpse the first page of the notebook.
Pressed onto that first page is a texture taken from the streets of Jingumae 2-chome. Round pieces of paper clay were pressed against details of the neighborhood, such as buildings, pavements and trees, to capture their surfaces, and these were then used as stamps, one for each notebook.
Even before it reaches the hands of the participating artists and creators, each Jinny Notebook already carries a piece of Jingumae 2-chome. On the pages that follow, the scenes, objects, words and ideas each of them found while walking the neighborhood are freely layered.
Beginning with the neighborhood itself and completed through the eyes of each artist, the notebook is also a work in its own right, one of the pieces that make up Notes from Jinny.
Jingumae Ni-chome is a quiet neighborhood tucked just behind the bustling streets of Harajuku, Shibuya.
Walking through Jingumae-nichome feels like stepping into a close-knit community where people are friendly, familiar, and know one another.
It’s a calm and welcoming place to stroll, connect, and feel at ease.
Jinny Street Gallery