under city

Opening Reception
Saturday, April 18, 2 – 4 pm
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Richmond Art Gallery presents the first North American exhibition of emergent Japanese collective SIDE CORE’s dynamic approach to urban space, public systems, and street culture. Known for site-specific projects that blur the boundaries between contemporary art, skate culture, and urban infrastructure, the Tokyo-based collective presents a selection of video works and photographs that explore the often overlooked spaces of the city – from highways and railroads to drainage tunnels and underground waterways.

At the heart of the exhibition is rode work ver. under city, a striking multichannel video installation. Created in collaboration with renowned skate film crew Far East Skate Network, the work captures skaters navigating Tokyo’s subterranean environments – including storm water basins, disused transit tunnels, and maintenance corridors. These movements transform utilitarian spaces into expressive terrains, linking isolated structures into a speculative, virtual undercity.

Like Richmond, much of Tokyo is built on reclaimed land and faces the constant risk of natural disasters. under city was shot in a regulating reservoir constructed as part of the city’s flood-control system. Although Tokyo and Richmond are separated by the Pacific Ocean, they share geological conditions as well as cultural and historical connections. Through this project, SIDE CORE seeks to reveal the invisible links that exist between such distant places.

under city collapses the boundaries between visibility and invisibility, surface and depth, play and policy. The exhibition invites audiences to reconsider how cities are navigated, controlled, and reimagined – offering a powerful reflection on space, access, and agency in contemporary urban environments.

This video was created in collaboration during a Civic Creative Base Tokyo Artist Fellowship.