Devon Tsuno

@contemporaryartreview.la (full interview link in bio) _ The National Trust for Historic Preservation recently announced that the historic Little Tokyo district in downtown Los Angeles is on the Trust’s annual list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. The Japanese American plunder did not start and end during WWII, as it continues in present day it is important to revisit thoughts on our shared struggles and the urgency for them to be visible and in public view. _ Interview @anaiwataki Art @devontsunostudio _ Scholarship/Research referenced: Wendy Cheng, Ph.D. “Landscapes of Beauty and Plunder” @nightcereus _ #descansogardens #publicart #devontsuno #contemporaryart #japaneseamericanhistory #californiahistory #eo9066 #littletokyo _ @residencyart Art 📷 @elonschoenholz Magazine 📷 @esteban_schimpf

@contemporaryartreview.la (full interview link in bio) _ Interview @anaiwataki Art @devontsunostudio _ AI: How has your family history helped you think through these issues? _ DT: My family’s been here since around 1910. [But] because so much of my cultural history has been erased from common knowledge, it’s been a process of peeling back the layers, going backward in time to learn about my own history and my family’s role in the development of what’s now Southern California… Different people in my family have fought for equality and social justice over those four generations through their labor, through education, and through the arts. It took 40 years for me to really understand that’s what I was doing. _ Scholarship/Research referenced: Wendy Cheng, Ph.D. “Landscapes of Beauty and Plunder” @nightcereus _ #descansogardens #publicart #devontsuno #contemporaryart #japaneseamericanhistory #californiahistory #eo9066 #littletokyo _ Installation 📷 @elonschoenholz Magazine 📸 @esteban_schimpf

@contemporaryartreview.la (full interview link in bio) _ Interview @anaiwataki Art @devontsunostudio _ Scholarship/Research referenced: Wendy Cheng, Ph.D. “Landscapes of Beauty and Plunder” @nightcereus _ #descansogardens #publicart #devontsuno #contemporaryart #japaneseamericanhistory #californiahistory #eo9066 #littletokyo @residencyart

Special project for @latimesimage “You spend so much time playing connect the dots to survive in the city.” _ “I decided I would like to disappear the 10 Freeway and turn it into a major waterway, a water highway for nature. Nature is the thing that I’m always searching for. Being in the car on the freeway is such a function of being an Angeleno in that you’re a commuter in that space. So I turned that commuter space into the space that I desire — a natural space, a river, a native space, where it’s a highway, not just for us to destroy the environment, but a highway in which animals could thrive. You know, restore an element of what the space used to be when Indigenous people were true protectors of this land.” _ Devon Tsuno, “Steelhead Highway (L.A. Watershed),” 2023, Spray paint and acrylic on canvas Inquiries: @residencyart _ 🏠 @residencyart ✍🏽@i2theb 📸@byrunnr 🐟@treadwatersfly

@latimesimage asked me if I “disappeared the 10fwy” what would it be…I said a native animal water highway...so I painted it. (Full text link in bio) _ “Nature is the thing that I’m always searching for,” says Tsuno.(Courtesy of Devon Tsuno and Treadwaters Fly Fishing) _ “We asked several artists — William Camargo, 3B Collective, Patrisse Cullors and Devon Tsuno — if they were game to work their magic. The prompt? Press the delete button on their freeway of choice.” _ “I feel like freeways are a negative thing that tear us apart from our communities, because we have to spend so much time on it. To be really honest, the freeways — and the ability to move from one place to another — are a function of capitalism…” _ 🏠@residencyart ✍🏽@i2theb 📸@byrunnr 🐟@treadwatersfly

@latimesimage asked me if I “disappeared the 10fwy” what would it be…I said a native animal water highway...so I painted it. (Full text link in bio) _ “This year, we had record rainfall, and all that water just went into the L.A. River and got dumped right out to the ocean; it wasn’t recaptured. But if there was a natural waterway, where water was recaptured by nature, that will be even cooler than recapturing it for us, for human development. Capturing the water for native animals and restoring that native landscape would be even more of a fantasy. So that’s what I did.” _ 🏠@residencyart ✍🏽@i2theb 📸@byrunnr 🐟@treadwatersfly

81 years ago my family was wrongfully incarcerated at Amerikan concentration camps. We must continue to fight in solidarity to end the culture of plunder and incarceration that continues today. Although my family’s farm is gone, I will continue to paint our shared histories of beauty, joy and self determination. #allpowertothepeople _ Tsuno’s grandmother incarcerated at Rohwer concentration camp in Arkansas, January 9, 1944 Shima Family Archive _ sixteen cents each and a landscape of plunder #7 (camellias), 2023 Spray paint, and acrylic on canvas 56 x 48 inches _ Long live the basil that grew from concrete when no one else even cared #1 (Jtown community garden), 2023 Spray paint, and acrylic on canvas 36 x 24 inches _ sixteen cents each and a landscape of plunder #9 (red camellias), 2023 Spray paint, and acrylic on canvas 40x30 inches _ “Jūrōdō is an all-new body of work by Japanese American artist Devon Tsuno. Jūrōdō, a Japanese word to describe heavy labor, is a term Tsuno has chosen, to describe solidarity with the Mexican, Filipino, Indian and Chinese farm workers who worked alongside Tsuno's grandfather. This show of unity led to the formation of the Japanese-Mexican Labor Association (JMLA), one of America’s first multi-racial labor unions. Jūrōdō includes images from early 20th century cantaloupe farms in the Imperial Valley, Oxnard sugar beets and berries, flowers from the largest camellia nursery that was plundered during WWII, and Japanese vegetables at the last Japanese American owned farm in Los Angeles.” “Tsuno's paintings of agriculture serves as a record of the historical impact labor, beauty, migration and displacement had within the Japanese diaspora. Taking stories from his own family and working directly with the families survivors, Tsuno paints abstract memories from their past and present. Tsuno’s new body of work is a rare historical look at labor as a means of survival and solidarity, celebrating the beauty of cultural preservation.” _ @residencyart #residencyartgallery #japaneseamericanhistory #eo9066 #devontsuno _ 📸 @elonschoenholz

Jūrōdō (Heavy Labor) _ Japanese migrant strawberry farmers,1915 Archival photograph via the Ouchi Family Collection, Densho _ @residencyart #residencyartgallery #japaneseamericanhistory #eo9066 #devontsuno #laborhistory #rohwerconcentrationcamp _ 📸 @elonschoenholz

Incarcerated Japanese Americans farming mellon at the Rohwer concentration camp in Arkansas Archival photograph via U.S. National Archives and Records Administration _ Devon Tsuno sixteen cents each and a landscape of plunder #8 (camellias), 2023 Spray paint, and acrylic on canvas 56 x 48 inches _ @residencyart #residencyartgallery #japaneseamericanhistory #eo9066 #devontsuno #laborhistory #rohwerconcentrationcamp _ 📸 @elonschoenholz

“Jūrōdō is an all-new body of work by Japanese American artist Devon Tsuno, marking the 80th anniversary of Executive Order 9066. In 1942, the United States forcefully removed over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry from their homes and relocated them to concentration camps. In addition, thousands of Japanese families living in Peru, Panama, Mexico and other Central & South American countries were also relocated and incarcerated.” _ Devon Tsuno (Detail) Jichan’s Oxnard berries and a landscape of plunder (Jūrōdō), 2023 Spray paint and acrylic on canvas 72 x 96 inches _ Mexican and Japanese cantaloupe farmworkers in the Imperial Valley Archival photograph via the Library of Congress _ @residencyart #residencyartgallery #japaneseamericanhistory #eo9066 #devontsuno #laborhistory #rohwerconcentrationcamp _ 📸 @elonschoenholz

“Jūrōdō, a Japanese word to describe heavy labor, is a term Tsuno has chosen, to describe solidarity with the Mexican, Filipino, Indian and Chinese farm workers who worked alongside Tsuno's grandfather. This show of unity led to the formation of the Japanese-Mexican Labor Association (JMLA), one of America’s first multi-racial labor unions. Jūrōdō includes images from early 20th century cantaloupe farms in the Imperial Valley, Oxnard sugar beets and berries, flowers from the largest camellia nursery that was plundered during WWII, and Japanese vegetables at the last Japanese American owned farm in Los Angeles.” _ Devon Tsuno Jichan’s Oxnard berries and a landscape of plunder (Jūrōdō), 2023 Spray paint and acrylic on canvas 72 x 96 inches _ Incarcerated Japanese Americans farming mellon at the Rohwer concentration camp in Arkansas Archival photograph via U.S. National Archives and Records Administration _ @residencyart #residencyartgallery #japaneseamericanhistory #eo9066 #devontsuno #laborhistory #rohwerconcentrationcamp _ 📸 @elonschoenholz

“Tsuno's paintings of agriculture serves as a record of the historical impact labor, beauty, migration and displacement had within the Japanese diaspora. Taking stories from his own family and working directly with the families survivors, Tsuno paints abstract memories from their past and present. Tsuno’s new body of work is a rare historical look at labor as a means of survival and solidarity, celebrating the beauty of cultural preservation.” _ Devon Tsuno Long live the basil that grew from concrete when no one else even cared #2 (Jtown community garden), 2023 Spray paint, and acrylic on canvas 36 x 24 inches _ Incarcerated Japanese Americans farming mellon at the Rohwer concentration camp in Arkansas Archival photograph via U.S. National Archives and Records Administration _ @residencyart #residencyartgallery #japaneseamericanhistory #eo9066 #devontsuno #laborhistory #rohwerconcentrationcamp _ 📸 @elonschoenholz