400 N. Peoria, 2025
pair of commemorative stamps, ink
Slemmons collection
Stemming from conversations around an album of early Japanese picture postcards from the Slemmons collection, Kioto Aoki & Jan Tichy collaborate on a pair of Japanese ink stamps that commemorate this current iteration of the Chicago Cluster Project in the former studio of Hedrick & Blessing Photographers at 400 N. Peoria.
Japan was once one of the largest producers of postcards, popular among both domestic and international customers as photographic memorabilia. The postcards from the Slemmons album range from hand-colored collotypes to real photo postcards and many are stamped with commemorative “Kuroki Imperial Residence” in purple ink.
The practice of collecting stamps in Japan is said to have originated from the practice of temples and shrines having individual goshuin seal stamps with calligraphy that visitors receive as proof of pilgrimage after paying respects. The seals have unique designs for each location and season, along with the date and function as a memento of one’s visit. Carved, individualized seals (hanko) are still used in lieu of a handwritten signature for official documents today; and collectible stamps can be found at historical, landmarked or notable locations including shrines, temples, museums and train stations.
The 400 N. Peoria stamps offer an exercise of this production and reproduction, connecting the histories of photographic and printmaking technologies with a stamp culture particular to Japan. Much like how the architectural photographs from Hedrich & Blessing built a historical archive of the city of Chicago, these stamps are a site-specific and temporal archive of a particular moment in time. The artists in the show activate various collections and archives from Tichy’s studio. Visitors are invited to experience these activations and record their encounter as participants in this cultural and creative exchange. In a month’s time, the exhibition will be deinstalled, the building repurposed, the stamp decommissioned. What is left then, is this new archive built through the collective activity of stamping, which will continue to circulate beyond these exhibition walls.