CHLOÉ JAFÉ X MORIKA YOSHIYAMA have taken over the gallery for 3 weeks for an installation.
We didn't curate the show merely gave over the space.

   Chloe is a photographer. She's from France but is now based in Tokyo and works at Magnum Photos.
Morika is an accomplished artist who is currently based in Okinawa and has previously worked with acclaimed photographer Mao Ishikawa

I believe this is their first hands-on exhibition and they have made a wonderful immersive space. 

  Hakusen Gallery and BHP gave Chloe and Morika financial assistance, gallery space,computer equipment, and Shinjiro and I gave our free time assisting Chloe in her installation of the show.Also this show will not earn Hakusen any commission during the 2 week run of the installation.As such the show was and is both a financial and time-consuming challenge to set up and to maintain.We all have to put bread on the table.

  While we had some initial problems with the Gallery/Artist relationship,communication mis-understandings, and responsibilities of each party  Hakusen/BHP have come away with a deepened sense of understanding of ourselves and how stressful shows can be for artists with little-to-no hands-on,at the chalk face experience, of putting a personal art show together.

   We have come away from this experience wishing to learn further and do it again (especially if you have pieces to sell) so if you feel like you'd like to have your own curated (by yourself) show at Gallery Hakusen and think your works and personal attitude may be similar to what Hakusen/BHP believe in then please get in touch via email and we'll have a chat!

    Once again we feel Chloe and Morika have really taken over the gallery so please come and visit the show while it is on! Show ends 28th October at 5pm ! Go see!

​(Photographs below are from some of the setting up and of the  opening party!)

​Congratulations Chloe and Morika on your first joint show together!

   This (my) opinion is only worth reading if you have been following this incident and what took place. To catch up, an unbiased article of what occurred can be found over on the wonderful BLEEDINGCOOL website, courtesy of Rich Johnson. I hope his unbiased reporting is reflected in my personal review of the this incident. The comments section after the Bleeding Cool article however is another thing altogether...

Declarations - I thought I would declare my relationship with each party in the need for transparency.

Comics and Cola - I have followed Comics and Cola's reporting since around 2013-2014. I am a qualified educator and
part-time librarian and have experience running school libraries and school reading programs. Zainab's blog initially interested me as Zainab was covering comics and also she also comes from a librarianship background.I still read Zainab's blog and have maintained a sidebar link to it from this site for about 4 years as I feel its content is important to the comic community. My last correspondence/talk with Zainab was in 2015 I think. 

Lakes International Comic Festival - I have known Julie since 2014 and was part of a group (read James Harvey and the then BHP crew)  that exhibited BARTKIRA  at LAKES in 2015. I also helped her with some (Japanese) contacts for LAKES 2016. LAKES will also attend CAT (Comic Art Tokyo) in November.

Although the initial tweet from Zainab doesn't include the words diversity or inclusion I agree wholeheartedly in the inference that the festival (LAKES) needs to be diverse and inclusive. 

Unfortunately it looks from the response that LAKES (Julie) gave that they didn't read in the inference and therefore responded very emotionally to a friend. I actually think the word 'slime' is a typographical error and should read 'some' but that's just my opinion. 

After this there were further emails and exchanges and blocking and unblocking and nice tweets and bad tweets and support tweets and passive aggressive tweets and solidarity tweets and likes and good quotes and bad quotes and comments and links and signings and everything else that leads to fragmented discussions and stormy opinions and truths and untruths. The whole whirlwind that twitter and social media can become and did become on this ocassion.

Last night I saw an enlightening and well written post written by Karrie Fransman on Facebook about the mess and also about some background details and below is my response  (edited for understanding) that I wrote on Facebook. As my Facebook post really sums up my feeling best I will end my article with it. 

"This is the second time this year i've seen how important it is when being challenged to step back , take a breath, and not reply until you've had enough time , and discussion with friends, to give your best answer. I feel for Zainab and what she believes in, i feel for julie and what she is trying achieve, i believe that your suggestion of a round table and action is good, its hard for some but its good for all.Fragmented online social media discussions is not the way to truly make positive changes."

                    THE LAKES INTERNATIONAL COMIC ART FESTIVAL IS  THIS WEEKEND IN KENDAL.

                                                                  >>>>CHECK IT OUT HERE<<<<

                           ZAINAB AKHTAR'S EISNER NOMINATED WEBSITE IS WELL WORTH A LOOK  

                                                                 >>>>CHECK IT OUT HERE<<<<

.Opening Evening - Admission is 1,000 yen. Friday/Saturday/Sunday - Free Admission

Probably the best Art Book Fair in Tokyo - You should go! 

My review of the Opening Night 

Fragmented but succesful - That was how last nights opening in the new venue felt.
I think it felt that way because the 3 main sections (International,Domestic,Food Stands) have about a 5-10 minute walk between each.
In some ways TABF was very fortunate with its previous venue The Tokyo Metropolitan Art Campus,it's bright, green, and airy and it's set over two floors.It's slap bang central Tokyo, within easy walking distance of the Aoyama and Harajuku districts.It is a beautiful venue in a prime spot. And when TABF did its thing there,yes it was busy, but it also felt cozy and calm. Hopefully the new venue overtime will start acquiring a charm.

The New Venue 

 If you wanted to go door to door from the old venue to the new one it will take you about 40 minutes (if you don't get lost).

The new venue is warehouse space. Its complicated explaining the layout in a way you would understand so
here's a picture.....

A single lift in each building ferries about 15-18 people to the rooms or you can use the stairs). 
It got rather busy on the Friday night with some hefty queues but it was manageable after around 6pm
but you can see from my photos it's still kinda busy.

The international section was a lot of photo books, a lot of photo books, still cool though.
Most of the fun action was in Sections A and T. Section A was considerably bigger than section T.

Photos of Friday Night

Here are the photos from Friday night. 
​