Misaki Kawai - 2008
The Alaskan was published by Decathlon books and is the first in a series of ten to be published over a two year span. Decathlon Books is a collaborative publishing project initiated with photographer and film maker Peter Sutherland - together we work as the editors, curators and designers for the series.
Misaki Kawai was born in 1978 and grew up in Osaka, Japan. Her Father being an architect and Sunday painter, and her mother making clothing and puppets by hand. Like many other adolescent Japanese girls, she was influenced by western pop culture to a fanatical degree. She was greatly fascinated with 60’s fashion and hippie culture, often following her mother’s example and hand making clothes for herself. Although her mother’s needlework was impeccable, Misaki favored a more haphazard handmade look.
She graduated from the Kyoto College of Art in Kyoto, Japan in 1999, and traveled to Turkey, Nepal, and Thailand, where she was greatly influenced by handmade dolls, textiles, and low quality manufactured objects. She then visited the US where she was influenced by contemporary art. Although residing in Osaka, Japan, she has spent a great deal of her time staying and making work in New York.
Like all the Decathlon books this is printed in Queens on a web press. Everything is intentionally stripped down to the simplest (cheapest) form - with a 2 color cover and the interior printed in black and white on green newsprint / 8.5’ x 11’ / 60 pages.
2008 / america / book design / decathalon / design / new york / newsprint / photograph /
