Design a Boardwalk Card Game (Work #2), 35mm photographs, washi business cards, 2022.
Unthings was developed following a month-long residency at Studio Kura in Itoshima, Japan.
The project draws from the ecological thinking of Masanobu Fukuoka, translating his principles through painting, collage, drawing, writing, and performance.
The exhibition operated as an interactive studio environment. Visitors were guided through a scripted encounter and introduced to The Unthing Machine, alongside sketches, process drawings, and collaged photographic works presented on the walls.
Performed by Rebecca Merlic, the machine enacted a sequence of handwritten instructions designed to alter perception — demonstrating how a seemingly ordinary item of food could be experienced differently through attention, ritual, and process.
Rather than proposing technological solutions, Unthings foregrounded value-shifts: how changes in perception might reshape relationships to food production, urban thresholds, and in-between spaces — opening possibilities for biodiversity beyond habitual palettes.
2022/09/24 Unthings
CATALOGUE : archived
LOCATION : Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan
WITH : Matthew Forsyth, Rebecca Merlic, Colin Peele, Anna Abl, Sanae Nicola, Eugenio Nuzzo, Georgia b Smith, Nick Uglow, Sabina Kafkova with Studio Kura.
this project is dedicated to the small scale farmers
Inbetween Places Collage Installation (Work #1), 35mm photographs, washi, 2022.
The Unthing Machine (Work #3), Carved and sanded found objects, miso, soy, honey and mirin, washi business cards, 2022.
Design a Boardwalk Card Game (Work #2) By Big Al — the table with the game presented, 35mm photographs, washi business cards, 2022.
Sketch from The Unthing Machine Open Studio selection, 2022.