The Nasubi Box Gallery Projectis the initiative of the Japanese artist Tsuyoski  Osawa. His work formed part of the 5th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at the Queensland Art Gallery this year. This major exhibition features the best contemporary art from across the Asia Pacific Area, and is the only such exhibition of its kind in the world.

Osawa’s Nasubi Gallery uses the structure of the traditional Japanese milk crate, a standard wooden box used to receive daily deliveries to Japanese homes until the 70’s. These ready made galleries were devised as a reaction to the increasing consumerism of Japan’s post war economic boom and the elitist art scene that made it difficult for young artists to exhibit their work. It is a parody of the Nasubi Gallery in Tokyo.

The Year 11 students worked with this idea to develop their own galleries that have now become part of Osawa’s world wide Nasubi Gallery. The students have chosen their own subjects for their Nasubi Boxes and have given us insights into how they view their world.

Nan Chesterman
Head of Art, Stuartholme School
Brisbane, Australia

Shea Mann: Winner of Queensland Art Gallery Nasubi Box Art Competition
The outside of my Nasubi gallery displays the natural beauty of our world- a beauty that is largely overlooked and forgotten in a modern world intent on ‘progress’.

Inside the box exposes the plight of this modern world with its major environmental and social  problems and poses the question ‘have we forgotten how to be human?’   

Jasmine Smith

Eliza Cramb
The contents of this box represent the inner world of thought via the way music is visualised in our minds. All music starts off as simple and basic rhythms and sounds. The box demonstrates how music is formed, and then visually displayed in our minds by sounds, techniques and instruments. 

Natasha Dearden: The Red Thread of Influence
I have used black and white pen drawing, a sculpture of a child and the theme of red to convey how influences inevitably penetrate a child’s initially unbiased view of the world. The red string symbolises links between influential figures in society and their effect on a child’s developing discourse.

Nicole Street
My Nasubi Gallery displays the harsh effects that global warming is having on our world, such as the melting of the polar ice caps, the destruction of various animal habitats and the rapid rise in sea levels that threatens to engulf whole coastal communities.

Ellen Lacey
My Graffiti Box has been painted with spray paint and incorporates digitally manipulated photographs of graffiti and the following text-
‘unthinking respect  for authority is the Enemy of Truth’
‘Enemy of individuality’, ‘Enemy of expression’.



        

Nicola Johnson
The gallery comments on the corruption of President Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe. Despite the injustices, hardship and the increasing prevalence of HIV/Aids the people still live in hope of a better future. A typical Zimbabwean woman sits on a log waiting.

 

Ella Penman
This box explores the fear of terrorism which drives society, and how the media and government feed this fear. The inside represents the measures taken on planes for fear of liquid explosives, and the outside showing what fear does to society, and questions the reason why we are afraid.

Rhianna Klemenc
My box has been created to show the life of Beethoven and his most famous work “Moonlight Sonata” the First Movement. The walls of my box have been collaged in tea stained “Moonlight Sonata” manuscript, and the inside of my box has been designed to look like Beethoven’s music room. The transparent, etched portrait of Beethoven hangs quietly imposing his presence.

Freya Hegarty
The boxes inside boxes are used as a representation of the layers of people. These layers help to express the inner world of thought of human beings. As the boxes reach towards the centre they become more fragile, and begin to represent deeper issues or thoughts that relate to human existence.

Sophia Levy
This gallery highlights the injustice of David Hicks’ five year detention (without trial) in Guantanamo Bay. It also includes photos of Terry Hicks, David’s Father, whose relentless efforts to receive justice for his son has caught the attention of the Australian public.

 
Brooke Gibson
So many much loved nursery rhymes relate to food!
This gingerbread gallery arranges nursery rhyme boxes in a pyramid of play blocks in a joyous celebration of childhood memories.

Charlotte Miller
The Black Dog Gallery, although bright on the outside suggests an ominous interior-
It appeared as her friend,
it was only her enemy her
thoughts it did rape
Treacherous, deceitful
nothing but lies
That murderous destructing
thieving self crushing her.

Jena Connolly
I designed my box round the idea of ageing and how people fail to see the value of elderly members of society and the history, background and rich experience that lies behind their eyes. The inside of my box is a reflection of these very layers of time and experience. The concept of the tree of life with symbolic falling leaves is intertwined with the overall idea.

Georgie Humphries
‘Trapped Imagination’ creates the suggestion that the bright, happy, imaginative thoughts of children are often lost, forgotten or trapped  through poverty, deprivation or issues of modern living such as sex drugs and violence that are a reality for children in more affluent countries.