RE:SHAPE, and a letter in Japanese

Hello fellow walkers and art lovers—

A shirt leaves a wardrobe. A while later, it returns to the neighborhood inside a streetlamp. Somewhere along the way, it has become paper, and then a work of art.

That is the short version of RE:SHAPE, running Sunday, November 1–Monday, November 30, 2026. The longer version involves a hotel, six neighborhood collection points, papermaking in Kochi, and six artists with very different ways of working. We’re happy to be the place where you can come and see what all of that has become.

We also have something new for our Japanese-speaking neighbors. More on that below.

Now showinguntil 30 Nov

1–30 Nov 2026RE:SHAPE6 artists · 28 lamps · 14 emptyA garment passed on becomes art that brings color to the neighborhood.

1Start at pole 128 lamps · 14 emptyFree · day and night

Open the exhibition →Take a virtual walk →Get directions ↗

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Before the clothes became paper

The project grew out of something quite ordinary. Since opening in 2022, all day place shibuya has been collecting clothes that guests leave behind when they check out. Over time, the team began looking for ways those clothes could take on another use and become part of the neighborhood again. You can read about that starting point in UDS’s account of the project.

For RE:SHAPE, the collection spread beyond the hotel. Boxes were placed at all day place shibuya, NININI·NI, Kosugiyu Harajuku, SOMSOC Gallery, HATTO COFFEE and FREITAG Store Tokyo Shibuya. Over three weeks, they collected 75 kg of clothing and textiles.

So the material already had quite a few connections to the neighborhood before an artist touched it. Some of you may have put something in one of those boxes. If you did, thank you. This is where it went next.

A paper with a past

With the help of Morishika in Kochi, the collected textiles were made into washi, Japanese paper, combining traditional hand-papermaking techniques with modern methods. Clothing fibers make up half of this paper. Small traces of color and fiber remain, giving the sheets their own texture and character.

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There’s something lovely about that: before a mark has been made on it, the paper already carries a little of its previous life. A surface with something to say before anyone starts drawing.

Six artists then took this shared material in different directions. If their names are new to you, here is a small introduction to the practices they bring to it:

• Dan Isomura works across painting, sculpture and sound, exploring time, bodies and different forms of life.
• Nori Okawa brings traditional Japanese forms into contemporary painting, looking again at the structures that shape our lives.
• Kenta Cobayashi transforms photographs with painterly distortions, extending his practice into sculpture and digital work.
• Dian moves between visual art, music and design, giving nonliving things personalities through which to explore human relationships.
• CHiNPAN works with ink she mixes herself, making room for its unpredictable bleeding and absorption.
• Ⓛ works in embroidery, with a practice that began through buying old objects and has included an entirely embroidered picture book.

Together, they have made more than 20 works for RE:SHAPE. The theme is SHAPE: what happens to an everyday thing when its form changes, and what we begin to see in it afterwards.

Take your time with the paper as well as what the artists have done with it. Look for the fibers, the small differences in color, the surface underneath the work. There was a whole journey before it arrived in the case.

Back in the neighborhood

RE:SHAPE is led by UDS HOTELS and all day place shibuya, with Jinny hosting the exhibition in our streetlamp cases. The works will also be for sale, with part of the proceeds intended to go back into Shibuya. The details of that return are still to be announced.

The exhibition uses poles 1–28 in Jingumae 2-chome, with artists’ works in 24 of those lamps. Here is where to find them:

• Dan Isomura — poles 7, 10, 21 and 23.
• Nori Okawa — poles 5, 12, 20 and 24.
• Kenta Cobayashi — poles 2, 14, 19 and 26.
• Dian — poles 6, 13, 18 and 25.
• CHiNPAN — poles 3, 8, 15 and 27.
• Ⓛ — poles 4, 9, 17 and 28.

Poles 1, 11, 16 and 22 carry exhibition information. Start at pole 1, follow the lamps, and see what catches your eye. The Artworks tab on the exhibition page has the catalogue’s images, descriptions, materials, dimensions and listed prices. Each artist’s case in the website’s virtual walk opens its artwork entry.

As always, it is free, outdoors and open around the clock. Come on your way to lunch, after work, or just because you feel like a walk. You can get distracted halfway through and come back another day. We’re here for the whole month.

A busy November

There are also ways to get your hands involved, hear more about the project, and walk through it with an artist. Four dates for your calendar; all times are Japan time.

From ¥1,320, tax included. No reservation needed; last admission at 18:30.

¥2,500 with a Kosugiyu Harajuku bath ticket, or ¥2,000 for the workshop only, tax included; last admission at 17:00. Book the workshop on Peatix. Each session takes about 30 minutes, for two people at a time.

Free, with advance booking. Register for the talk on Peatix. The speakers include Genki Nakamura of CATs, a community group of people who work on Cat Street, and our own Lorenzo. After the talk, a curator takes everyone around the exhibition.

¥2,500, tax included, with food and drinks during the tour. Book the walk on Peatix. It starts near Yoyogi Park, and participants get the exact meeting point. There are only 10 places.

All four are on the exhibition page too; keep an eye on RE:SHAPE’s Instagram for announcements.

And now, a letter in Japanese

These letters have moved house, too. We’ve left Substack and brought our dispatches into the Jinny website, where you can now find the earlier letters alongside our exhibition archive. New dispatches go out through our own mailing lists, so you can keep reading in your inbox or come and find them on the website.

And those mailing lists now include a Japanese edition. Alongside this dispatch, we’re sending our first Japanese newsletter. We’ve been writing these letters in English for a while, and it feels good to finally welcome our neighbors and friends who would rather read in Japanese.

The Japanese letter has its own introduction to Jinny and to RE:SHAPE. From here, it will bring news of exhibitions, walks, workshops and the life around the gallery.

If you know someone who’d enjoy it—the people next door, a colleague, the friend you always drag along to openings—please pass on the Japanese sign-up page.

Thank you for continuing to walk with us. We hope you’ll come and see what a few old clothes have become.

As always, see you around the hood,

—Toto, Lorenzo and the Jinny Team