Outline of the artwork

Artist name: Sunao Horikawa
Title: Passing on Hope with a Rugby Ball
Year: 2019
Material: Enamel
Size: approx. 9.5×5.3m
Location: Courtyard, HIGASHIOSAKA Cultural Creation Hall (2-3-4 Mikuriyaminami, Higashiosaka-shi, Osaka)
Coordination: ARTCOURT Gallery

About Passing on Hope with a Rugby Ball

A mural work by Sunao Horikawa has been installed in the courtyard of the Higashiosaka Cultural Creation Hall, Higashiosaka City’s new creative center for arts and culture.

For this work, Horikawa focused on rugby as a theme befitting the facility and created an artwork around the subject of the rugby ball, as the sport plays a large part in Higashiosaka’s culture.
When producing this work, Horikawa held 9 workshops where people made observations on the rugby ball, at elementary schools and festivals in Higashiosaka City. She then drew the work at a size of 3.2 x 1.8 meters, based on the many shapes and words that stemmed from the rugby ball by around 70 of Higashiosaka’s children. The drawing was then enlarged and printed onto enamel to finish off an approximately 9.5 meter tall mural work.

“One for All, All for One” and “No Side” not only represent the spirit of rugby, but Horikawa believes that it is also representative of the many people involved in making things who help each other, and the ideal way Higashiosaka ought to be, which people should pass down into the future. As the city of small and medium-sized businesses that she herself was born and raised in, Horikawa’s hopes and experiences of Higashiosaka lead to this work that holds the wish to pass down the spirit of rugby through connecting a “pass of hope” to the next generation.

Moreover, the installation of this work in this facility was determined through a competition of 3 young artist nominees with connections to Higashiosaka, held on November 30, 2017.