PLACE by S.T,N,E. @ ON SUNDAYS (Watari-um Museum Shop)

In 1997, I started TRUCK.
The shop and factory were connected by a single door, and I lived upstairs.

At a time when even the word “renovation” was not yet common,
I rebuilt the space myself, living there while making furniture.

There was no internet then.
Wanting to communicate atmosphere, I took the photographs myself and made a book.
One of the places I carried those books to in Tokyo, packed into a carry bag, was ON SUNDAYS.

“We can’t carry a furniture store catalog.”

That was the first response.
But after looking through the book, maybe something about the spirit behind it came across, and they decided to carry it.
Eventually, I was even invited to hold an exhibition using TRUCK furniture in the downstairs café.
That was between 1999 and 2000.

———

Nearly 30 years after starting TRUCK,
I found myself wanting to return to the kind of “simplicity” I had in the early days.

As I continued making furniture, details naturally accumulated.
That process was enjoyable, and also necessary.

But at the same time, the urge to strip things away gradually grew stronger inside me.

That feeling became the starting point for S.T,N.E.
“Same TRUCK, New Engine”

Keeping the good parts of an old truck I’ve driven for years,
while installing a new engine so it can run smoothly again in a new way.

S.T,N.E. began in December 2024.
While preparing for an exhibition in Tokyo, I made another book to communicate atmosphere.

As soon as the freshly printed books were finished,
I carried them to ON SUNDAYS — the same place I had visited 26 years earlier.
That eventually led to this exhibition.

Among the S.T,N.E. pieces, PLACE SHELF felt like one of the biggest challenges.
I shaped it while holding onto the feeling that “adding nothing” was what I truly wanted to do.