Kenji Chiga “After the after all” — Now Available for Order

Born out of the exhibition “After all” held this spring at RPS Kyoto Papéroles, After the after all is a special artist book that reconstructs the materials and elements generated during the show into a new, tangible form.

©︎Kenji Chiga / After the after all

Created by reusing materials that were originally destined to be discarded after the exhibition, this book transforms remnants of the past into a renewed physical presence. Fragments of thermal paper repeatedly printed in the exhibition space and pieces of cardboard once bearing photographic images — they are traces, records, and sedimentations of time itself. By treating these remnants as raw material, the artist reimagines what it means to begin again from the point of an “ending.”

©︎Kenji Chiga / After the after all

©︎Kenji Chiga / After the after all

©︎Kenji Chiga / After the after all

©︎Kenji Chiga / After the after all

The structure of the book inherits part of the mechanism that Chiga developed during the exhibition. The printed words and symbols within evoke fragments of the countless commands and messages we unconsciously receive in everyday life. Though composed of seemingly disparate materials, each component once coexisted in the same space and moment, quietly weaving a new narrative from shared memory and decay.

Each copy is meticulously handcrafted by the artist. While produced as an open edition, every copy is individually numbered and signed. Some of the materials used were generated and repurposed directly from the exhibition, meaning that each book contains distinct elements within a unified design framework.

Each work thus embodies its own temporal trace and material memory — a singular entity that exists only once in this world. Emerging at the intersection of intention and chance, every copy becomes an unrepeatable crystallization of the present.

Sales will continue until the limited stock of materials is exhausted. Although there is no predetermined edition size, the finitude of its components ensures that After the after all will inevitably become a record of process — a quiet testament to time and transformation.

We invite you to hold it in your hands and feel the delicate interval between generation and disappearance.

As the word “after all” suggests, the decline of one particular crime never means that the underground economy disappears. One form subsides, another emerges, and the shadow continues to expand.

Why does this happen? What are we failing to see?

Today, it is said that roughly half of those arrested are repeat offenders. Why is that? Were they inherently “bad”? Or is it because our society is unwilling to accept people with criminal records? Or because the ideals of “self-responsibility” and “self-help” have spread so deeply throughout this country? Who, in fact, is involved in the continuous reproduction of crime?

This work is an object reconstructed from Chiga’s pieces that were originally meant to be discarded after the exhibition period. Printed on the thermal paper are phrases resembling “instructions” and portraits reduced into symbols. Generated daily throughout the exhibition, they embody the “commands” we each receive from somewhere in our everyday lives, and they visualize—through the conversion of photographs into ASCII-like images—the process by which we begin to see others as numbers.

Encasing the roll of thermal paper is a structure surrounded by fragments of cardboard printed with photographs once displayed at the back of the venue. It is nearly impossible to infer which parts of which images these scattered pieces once belonged to, yet they undeniably formed a single, larger picture. In other words, the whole could not have existed without them.

This is also a reflection of each of us within society.

The case connecting these two different elements was designed as a system that binds them together and produced using a 3D printer.

Please pull the end of this endlessly looping strip with your own hands and see where it leads.

Kenji Chiga

“After the after all” – Artist Book Details

  • Edition: Open edition (each copy signed and numbered by the artist)

  • Photography, Editing, Printing & Binding: Kenji Chiga

  • Size (per book): 95 × 45 × 49 mm

  • Materials: Thermal paper, cardboard, acrylic, PLA

  • Weight: Approx. 120 g

  • Price: ¥7,770 (tax included, shipping not included)

  • Language: Bilingual (Japanese / English)

Order Notes
Orders will be fulfilled upon confirmation of payment.
Shipping will begin immediately.
If we do not receive payment or any communication, the order will be automatically canceled.
Please note that we do not send individual shipping notifications.
Alternatively, you can place your order via email at photobook@reminders-project.org



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©︎Kenji Chiga / After the after all

©︎Kenji Chiga / After the after all

©︎Kenji Chiga / After the after all

千賀健史・林田真季 写真展「After all」会場：RPS京都分室パプロル

千賀健史・林田真季 写真展「After all」会場：RPS京都分室パプロル

千賀健史・林田真季 写真展「After all」会場：RPS京都分室パプロル

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