February 27, 2023
Double Double Special Edition Book Launch
You are cordially invited next Saturday 3/11 to the US launch of Double Double, Protein Style, Animal Style with a Strawberry Shake and Chips by Wyatt Conlon, published by The Fulcrum Press.
Double Double Special Edition Book Launch
Wyatt Conlon at Goodfight Studio
1685 Beverly Blvd 90026
Saturday, March 11
6-9pm
At Goodfight we make product for people. That’s always been the best part of the job: the relationships that we’ve gained through our journey, whether that’s working on something together or meeting someone in the shop. One of those people that we’ve grown to be able to call “friend” is Wyatt Conlon, talented photographer and one third of independent publisher & contemporary gallery The Fulcrum Press.
When Wyatt’s grandfather passed away, he discovered a trove of photographs that documented the entirety of his life. Born in Hiroshima, Shoichi Yoshida grew up in Maui the second eldest of ten in a family working on the then Kahului railroad. On December 7, 1941, 353 Imperial Japanese aircraft rained fire on Pearl Harbor, killing 2,403 Americans and wounding 1,178 others. Shoichi was drafted into the US military as America joined the Second World War, and while his future wife and her family were being “interned” at Rohwer Arkansas War Relocation Camp, he, as a Japanese American, was being sent to fight for America against Japan.
Wyatt and his grandfather’s relationship grew extremely close through his time in highschool and college as he realized their time together was waning. When that time finally came to a close, Wyatt found himself without direction with the pain of loss. So when he found the photographs, he began to gather and sort these celluloid chronicles about his grandfather—not just from his own perspective, but also from other people who had relationships through the years with Shoichi.
Double Double, Protein Style, Animal Style with a Strawberry Shake and Chips is a photographic book that deals with overcoming the grief of losing someone you love by rediscovering their story through others. The book is the result of nearly a decade’s work of bringing together all the people his grandfather loved. From getting drafted into the military, to meeting his grandmother and struggling to figure out how to be an “American” in a country he fought for that didn’t seem to want him back—Double Double isn’t just a Japanese-American story, but a project for people of any culture who have had to overcome adversity to realize their dreams.
On Saturday 3/11 we will be holding a special event at the Goodfight studio to launch the book and a special edition set, which includes a screen-printed box, the book, a limited YMCA Shirt Edition of 100, and a copy of Their Archives Photo Album Zine. The tee is an inspired reproduction of the old yellow tee shirt Shoichi always wore to Wyatt’s highschool basketball games that made his grandfather easy to spot in the crowd. The zine was a photo album created by Wyatt’s great grandmother from photos taken during their internment at Rohwer War Relocation Center as a powerful way to remember their smiles even through their life at the concentration camp. The outside of the box features a photo taken by Shoichi with a camera Wyatt had gotten him; the inside features the first and last photos taken that he has of his grandfather.
This is a project we are extremely passionate about and hope you can join us to experience its power, and if you want, walk away with something for yourself or something you can pass on to someone else.
Bio
Wyatt Conlon (b. 1991, Los Angeles, California, USA) is an image-based artist who received his BFA from the University of Southern California in 2013. He uses found and taken sources of imagery to analyze his ancestral history, collective memory and the act of recollection. He is one of three members of The Fulcrum Press, an independent publisher and contemporary gallery based in Los Angeles, California exploring the interplay between photography and other media.