I visited Dan Isomura’s solo exhibition “Our Crime-Prevention Goods.”
The venue was Ginza Tsutaya Books.
Dan Isomura, “Our Crime-Prevention Goods”
Regarding the “crime-prevention goods” in the exhibition title — there are many kinds of such goods. Security cameras, pepper spray; if you search “security equipment” in English, images of guns turn up.
I believe that crime is not something born of the individual, but something born of the environment. Depending on the environment, our neighbors — or we ourselves — may become criminals at any time. Crime is that unstable a thing, and there is something dangerous about the way humans define it.
I am holding this exhibition while considering questions like: Might art be able to function as a “crime-prevention good” in the sense of “preventing our neighbors and ourselves from becoming criminals”? What would society look like if fear of crime and unknown dangers were directed not toward individuals or specific groups, but toward environments and relationships?