NEWS

Tacoma residents transform fence into conversational art

Masahiro Sugano and Anida Yoeu Ali admit their first year in Tacoma's Hilltop neighborhood was tough. They had to file three police reports for property-related crime.

Author: Amy Moreno

Published: 5:36 AM PST November 26, 2018

Updated: 12:48 PM PST November 26, 2018

Some homes feature a prominent fence for safety reasons, but a pair of Tacoma artists have transformed the fence outside their home into something truly unique.

Masahiro Sugano and Anida Yoeu Ali admit their first year in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood was tough. They had to file three police reports for property-related crime.

Still, these artists were drawn to a life in Tacoma for a reason and wanted to make a positive contribution.

“[The] kind of the temperament of this city really fit our personalities; very simple folks, honest, hard-working people,” Sugano explained.

The pair spent more than a year fixing a gutted home at the corner of South 17th Street and South Grant Avenue and knew that art had to be part of their property, even if they had some concerns about safety.

“The idea was how to keep the house safe when you move to a new place: one is to put a high wall and put surveillance cameras everywhere, and another is to take out the wall and get to know as many people as possible and get to understand the community.”

Sugano said they felt the latter was the right choice, even if they were worried.

They were kicking around ideas for how they wanted to express their feelings when Sugano says he ran a thought by his wife.

“You get like ten crazy ideas a day. It was one of those and she was like yes!” he recalled.

So, with help from friends and their neighbors, they took out their chain link fence and put up a new sort of fence. Bright white letters, resembling the famous Hollywood sign, that says “Hello. How are you?”

“It's a really interesting way to use art to create this perimeter around the house instead of something that's so tightly about barriers,” Ali explained. “It comes from an innocence, a conversational aspect from this salutation. It's a greeting."

It's supposed to get people talking and it’s working.

“One person I saw reversed back an entire block to stop his car and jump out with two kids to take a selfie,” Ali explained.

They consider it art but what do they hope people take from it?

“It would be great if people just crack up the first time they see this,” Sugano explained. “I can't believe somebody did this, then I'm not pushed to think one way or another if I'm cool with this.”

Of course, if it brings down a few more fences that wouldn't be a bad thing either.

“If we take down a lot of the barriers we have internally, emotionally, and physically ... once we're able to do that maybe we can crack open some conversation starters. We're not all going to agree but can we at least be neighborly,” Ali said.

The pair says they would be open to having a community group, church, mosque or school host the display. They’ve helped start a conversation they hope more people will join in.