Drive Home

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Feeling(s) Transplant operation / In Case of Her Who “Having A Shower, Well”

This is the plan of facade about reforming the shower room, it is mimic to birds’ nest-making about shape and how to make.

In the age when people still run after the mammoth, it seems that people built such as structures which people gathered every useful things on the ground like a dead blunch, and they held these things over ground, further laid grasses and skins of wood. Such as little birds able to make.

Because, birds and other small animals nests has a roundly shape without exception, so that it’s easy to make to build and to use if those are small. And there are some reasons.

Mimic to birds’ nest-making is not come to change if it is miniature to the extent that a dimension of sense is smaller and fewer than those objects. In the case of our nest-making, even complicated things, it will come to see if its were limited for a part of lower dimension, so we can understand how to make it.

It is said that people handover things what anyone already knows as a correct knowledge. As if people receive things already everyone into hand, from oneself.

Using something of miscellaneous and incoherent things, managing with an assembly of tools and materials in that time. It would be a rule of this game. Because nothing in our hand, now.

But we cannot yet begin this game because we don’t have anything. Therefore we want to perform some workshops to obtain ” tools and things limited by the moment “.

It is touched off by all of the scene and all of people which we came across incidentally and we draw it in the diary. And like that, our nest-making advances.

While we stay, we get things by a game and event such as the workshop. These are updated from C to D such as write down a diary when pile up.


Drive Home received one of 2007 S-AIR Awards from the city of Sapporo, Japan as part of the new network exchange project with S-AIR (Sapporo Artist in Residency, Japan) for 2 months. This was the first time ComPeung made an exchange with other foreign creative organizations. Drive Home created series of interactive sculpture, installation and workshops with primary school students from the local school (Mea Dok Dang primary school).

Drive Home is a group of young Japanese based in Sapporo city, Japan. The main members are:

Hiroyuki Nogami
born in Hokkaido in 1980.
In 2003, graduated at Hokkaido University of Education Sapporo art culture course arts and crafts course. Sculpture specialty.
In around  2003, he went around Japan with work  of a physical performance “Tricycle Taxi”.
From 2006, he has act as [drive home].
In 2006, it is public production, the public establishment of a sculpture at Mexican Jalapa international sculpture symposium.
Held a solo exhibition of a sculpture in “temporary space” in Sapporo in 2004 and 2006.
Live in Onomichi, Hiroshima.

Naoto Okawada
born in Hokkaido in 1979.
In around 2000, he studied under Hiroyuki Ohki (an movie artist) as an assistant director.And studied under Masami Tada (an artist) as an assistant in recent years.
From 2006, he has act as [drive home].
Participated by the director’s choice in CITY PROJECT related to “international art exhibition Dematel “.
Solo exhibition of picture in “temporary space” of Sapporo in 2004, 2006.
Live in Onomichi, Hiroshima.

As part of 2007 Network Creative Centre Exchange Program with S-AIR (Sapporo Artist in Residence, Japan)

A report* from Drive Home after they returned to Sapporo

ComPeung, a residency in the tranquil village located on the outskirts of the city centre in Chiang Mai, was built by fellowship members who are supporting artist’s creativity process and activities.

We made a plan to renovate a shower room which was already there. We then left for Thailand. We planned the renovation to resemble birds nesting, for the purpose of making it wherever the place would be, and whoever could build it. Since we started in a place where we did not have anything, it seemed to be effective that we did the two processes simultaneously: collecting the material, and building and renovating the shower room. It is just as birds were nesting.

Making something by hands, just as birds were nesting, result in only a small replica, a miniature which mirrors our experience, since it is impossible for us to make a nest like birds do. Therefore, it was important for us to know how birds made nests. By examining something from a natural perspective, we were able to experience the process. With the methods to make a miniature, we were considering mimesis.

First, we made a boat resembling a nest, to launch in a small lake near ComPeung. The idea came from our conversation with SUMO STUDIO, a French based artist team who stayed in ComPeung the same time as us. We worked together to build the boat. Later, this process of making the boat was employed for the structure of the shower room roof for renovation. Making a nest was, in fact, a game. The rules of the game were to use miscellaneous and incoherent things we found, and to make our nest with as few tools and devices which we could. Indeed, we had nothing in our hands, except things around us.

Then we conducted some workshops at the element school near ComPeung. First, we started playing hide and seek and having a scavenger hunt with the students. Through this, students realized that for birds, a nest is safe and calm place as well as hideout against predators, in other words, it is a retreat. Finding the hideout allowed them to think about location and the significance of the location of the birds. The students began to think about their own retreats. We then collected and found miscellaneous things we could use. After that, we pushed our bodies into the things to make an imprint, just as a bird makes a nest with its own body, and this became nest-like hats that covered the students’ heads. (a retreat = a nest, a nest-like hat, a hat, a retreat)

We collected not only miscellaneous things but also motifs and other methods of construction that we learned to make the nest boat and nest hat. We employed this tactics for the renovation of the shower room. All of the conversations, emotions, work, and experiences come out through this project. Furthermore, we aimed to deal with experiences and feelings of others involved as well as our experiences. The final work as well as its process draw emotion from the viewers as well as people involved (artists, supporters, builders and local people). The goal of this project is to be able to build this nest in any location and any circumstance. We named this project [Feeling(s) Transplant Operation / In Case of Her Who “Having A Shower, Well”]. This name just came to us. We will be continuing this project.

*ICC + S-AIR 2007 Exchange Program catalogue (p.30)