This Collection of Prints Captures How a Neighbourhood Feels

I’ve now spent about 20 per cent of my life away from home and, while waking up to the sea and mountains on the same horizon is something I cherish, it’s the little reminders of home that always warm my heart. That’s why you’ll often find me wandering the aisles at T&T Supermarket, even when I don’t need to buy anything. So when Brett Kwan shared how he wanted to bring a piece of both Vancouver and Tokyo with him wherever he went, I immediately understood.

You may know Kwan for his work in public journalism at CBC Vancouver. In 2017, he moved to Tokyo and served as a consulting producer at NHK World Japan. Over the years, Kwan called two neighbourhoods home: Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant and Tokyo’s Shimokitazawa. Combine the two and you have Kwan’s latest endeavour—Pleasant Shimo, an artist-driven marketplace that showcases local artists to a global audience by focusing on iconic neighbourhoods in various cities. 

“I wanted to bring a piece of Vancouver with me and I was always looking for those types of representations to encapsulate what Vancouver was,” Kwan explains. “And when I came back to Canada after my time in Japan, I couldn’t find anything that represented certain neighbourhoods in Tokyo.”

Pleasant Shimo’s debut collection is created by 20 artists—half from Tokyo, half from Vancouver—showcasing 22 neighbourhoods across both cities. The artworks are intricately designed, having gone through three-to-five iterations to ensure that they are instantly recognizable. Iconic landmarks include Granville Island’s Public Market, the Shibuya Crossing and Takeshita Street in Harajuku. Priced at $100, the artworks are printed on premium-quality paper sourced from Japan, complete with a matte finish for a more sophisticated look.  

Launching Pleasant Shimo, however, was anything but straightforward. Kwan began conceptualizing the project last June, just after completing his MBA at McGill University. It started with a rough PowerPoint, a flurry of cold calls and dozens of daily emails. He found most of his Vancouver artists by attending graduation showcases at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design, reaching out to new graduates to join the project. In contrast, finding artists in Tokyo proved more challenging—most artists are harder to reach due to limited personal information available online. As a result, Kwan had to contact universities and illustrator societies to find artists for this project.

“The hardest part was fostering trust,” he says. “You get a cold call from a guy in Montreal saying, ‘Hey, I want you to do something about Vancouver and Japan. And I’ve never done this before, but I think I can do it.’ And because I don’t have a background in art, I had to showcase what I’ve done before.”

Yet his persistence and passion for Pleasant Shimo persisted and, soon enough, he had 20 artists who were eager to contribute to the Vancouver-Tokyo collection. Kwan gave the artists creative freedom with just one guideline: their chosen places needed to be instantly recognizable to the public. Some artists explored neighbourhoods in person, while others conducted detailed ethnographic research to capture each area’s unique characteristics.

Pleasant Shimo’s first-ever collection will make its debut at this year’s Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival, displayed in a pop-up gallery where visitors can purchase the artworks. Several artists will be present to sign prints, discuss their creative process and also share stories about the neighbourhoods that inspired them.

Though Pleasant Shimo is just getting started, Kwan is already collaborating with new artists for future collections, aiming to highlight more cities across the Indo-Pacific.

“I really wanted to do something that I’d be proud of. I’ve been able to do that with journalism, so why not try this? If not now, then when?”

Check out Pleasant Shimo’s debut collection at the Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival from June 21 to 22.