Akira Shimizu - Post
In March 1965 he exhibited "Post" in Big Fight Exhibition held at Tsubaki Gallery in Tokyo. Shimizu made this imitation of Post as real thing as much as possible. According to Shimizu the post was installed in front of the gallery, and many people who walked along the street threw their letters into his gposth. So he had to go to a real post in order to mail all the letters actually. He continued to make Posts as much as possible and in the end he and his wife had to sleep and have meals in a room full of posts.
He practiced Post performance in 1965. In this performance Shimizu carried his post on the back and walked around the downtown area of Kawasaki (Industrial area adjacent of Tokyo), or installed it in a field. He carried it out by himself with his own belief. This work was in fact strongly related with his memory in his childhood. He experienced bombing when he was 7 or 8 years old during the World War II. He remembered that after Toyama City (his hometown located in Hokuriku district) was bombed, only a post existed in the devastated area. And he made lots of imitation posts in 1960fs. Later he also made various kind of objects like the post that is split by half, twisted posts etc. And this is one of his most important themes in his life.
