THE COPY TRAVELERS

In September 2022, our residency began at YAU STUDIO in Yurakucho. As always, the creative process of THE COPY TRAVELERS starts by scattering all kinds of images across a table. Each member brings in different motifs, materials, printed matter such as magazines and photobooks, and places them in front of us. From there, we begin the repetitive process of cutting, pasting, drawing, and making copies. At some point, these scattered fragments begin to take on entirely new forms—something different from what they were at first. We share the time to confront, respond to, and examine these emerging images together as a group.

Wondering if we could present this chaotic and generative state as it is, we placed colored sheets of paper throughout the studio late at night and spontaneously assembled the images we had produced onto them.
These constructions, built in an instant and ready to collapse the moment we looked away, were quickly photographed at the very moment they rose up.

The captured images were then printed, scanned again through a copy machine, and transformed into a 22-color “carpet.” Floating gently upward from the darkness toward the sky, the carpet carried a mixture of forms, textures, and meanings—layered and unsteady, just like the process that created them.