Monday, June 07, 2010

Dehara - Jizo Exihibit at GR2

What is a Jizo? It is the Buddhist divinity who protects the departed souls of deceased children, babies and unborn fetuses. Its likeness can be found in cemeteries and on roadsides in Japan. These are the inspiration for Dehara's latest show. He calls them "Japanese stone angels."

There were over 20 custom painted Jizo and over 20 custom figures, J.J. sets, Jizo in regular grey color and special colorways stickers, books, keychains and other boxed figures. Each Jizo comes with matching rice ball accessory. His custom Jizo range from the cute (ONIGIRI) to the slightly bizarre (JUICY HOLE). The figures were absolutely amazing. I really liked the dog, HACHI. and the Jizo with J.J. sets. With so many figures to choose from I finally decided on the MENTA-kun Jizo. It was either that or KILLER CABBAGE. I also thought about getting one of the Jizo colorways, but the white one wasn't GID.

I got to meet Dehara for the first time. He is really nice. He was kind enough to do a Menta and Jizo sketch in my book. Even gave me some insight on how he came up with the Menta and the giant rock he painted on in Japan. These are the times when I wish I could speak a little more Japanese than I do now. David, Sun-Min and Mina stopped in to take peek at the show. Hung out a little bit with SuperBen too.

The exhibit runs through July 7 at GR2, so there is still quite a bit of time to take a look at some truly amazing pieces.

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