Two Japanese artists have travelled to Fife to exhibit their work in an unlikely location – an old telephone box.
Masahiro Kawanaka and Aya Shimamoto, from Osaka, have set up at the former public payphone in the centre of Strathkinness, now home to the region’s smallest art gallery.
The iconic red box was transformed into the 201 Telephone Box Gallery by Fife-based artist Lada Wilson in 2018.
And it has since hosted dozens of miniature exhibitions in a space measuring just 86cm x 86cm x 200cm.
They include shows by national and international artists, who adopt the theme of communication in honour of the box’s history.
The current exhibition, Ten, Yen, En, invites the public to make their own artwork using the objects provided.
Instructions left inside the phone box encourage people to use 10 yen coins, pencils and paper, which are on show alongside a traditional Japanese payphone.
Artist’s first visit to UK
Masahiro is an artist and gallery director, who has displayed work across the world.
He also took part in an artists’ residency in Kinghorn in 2011.
Aya, meanwhile, has a science degree and this is her first visit to the UK.
She is also exhibiting print works and small sculptural objects alongside Masahiro’s work in Dundee.
Lada, who teaches at Duncan of Jordanson College of Art in Dundee, met the pair in 2018.
“I’ve worked with them and they invited me to have an exhibition in Kyoto last year,” she said.
“I then managed to get some funding to bring them over here.”
Communication is ‘key thing’ for Telephone Box Gallery
Since the 201 Telephone Box Gallery opened, it has hosted paintings, sculptures and even performances.
201 refers to the last three digits in the box’s old phone number.
“The key thing is communication because that honours the original purpose of the phone box,” Lada said.
“It’s amazing how artists respond to that. I get a lot of artists from the community as well as people coming from Edinburgh and Glasgow.”
Ten, Yen, En is on in the phone box until Sunday.
Conversation