Spoon & Tamago

Page 151 of 409

Yuma Kano Wants to Cover the World With Smiley-Face Screws

February 22, 2016 / Johnny / Comments Off

There are screws all around us. Hundreds and thousands of them. In doors and fences and electrical outlets. This is what makes Japanese designer Yuma Kano’s participatory art project so brilliant. In short, the screw 🙂 project is an initiative to swap out regular screws all around the world for smiley-faced ones, and plot them on a map so others can find them. Think of the joy and surprise one would have discovering this special screw. As the designer puts it: “quietly changing the world with one tiny screw.”

Netsuke: Ancient Pocket Charms from Edo Japan

February 20, 2016 / Kaori Freda / 1 Comment

At first glance, this netsuke appears to be a confusion of spiny limbs but upon further examination you can see a pair of horned beetles clambering up a twisted twig.

The British Museum in London is home to more than 2,300 tiny and remarkable sculptures called netsuke. These intricately wrought objects are preserved cultural relics that were all the rage as men’s fashion accessories during Japan’s Edo period from the late sixteenth century to the nineteenth century.

In her book called Netsuke: 100 Miniature Masterpieces from Japan, Japanese art curator Noriko Tsuchiya details historically significant netsuke, with selections including a glowing ivory carrier pigeon to a terrifying ghoul carved in excruciating detail. Netsuke is an artform that is still practiced today, in mediums ranging from ivory and porcelain to lacquered wood and hippopotamus horn.

A Survey of Feminist Art in Japan

February 17, 2016 / Johnny / Comments Off

Feminist art is a rare category of art in Japan. The country got a shockingly large dosage in 2014 when Megumi Igarashi (the ‘vagina kayak’ artist) was arrested for obscenity charges and the story sent ripples across Japan. Now, a new exhibition wants to help the nation ease back into the genre of feminist art by presenting “an intimate snapshot of the diversity, complexity, humor and seriousness of feminist practice in Tokyo and beyond.”

Ronin | Globus Artist-In-Residence Program

February 16, 2016 / Johnny / Comments Off

(English to follow)

Spoon & Tamago（スプタマ）では、これまで日本の作家を支援する活動に取り組んできました。その一環として、今年から誕生するローニン／グローバス・アーティスト・イン・レジデンス・プログラムに審査員及びメディア・パートナーとして参加させて頂く運びとなりました。この年間プログラムは、日本のヴィジュアル・アートの先駆者たちを通じた異文化間対話の活性化を模索するものです。応募され、見事入賞された作家にはニューヨークでのレジデンシーや展示会などといった素晴らしい機会が与えられます。是非ともこの機会において応募してみてください！

応募方法や詳しい情報はこちらの特設サイトをご覧ください。（締め切りは日本時間の２０１６年４月１日とさせて頂きます）

40-Week Mother Book Pregnancy Diary Grows With the Mother’s Belly

February 16, 2016 / Johnny / Comments Off

The Mother Book is a pregnancy diary that mirrors the 40 weeks that a mother typically spends nurturing their babies inside their womb. The elaborately designed, handcrafted book consists of 40 pages, each with topographical cutouts that, as you flip through, reveals the changing shape of a woman’s body.

When we originally wrote about the diary in 2014 it was only available to expectant mothers utilizing the services of a birthing facility in Japan. But given the enormous response, the designers have decided to make additional copies available for anyone to purchase.

Low Pixel CG: the playful ceramic artwork of Toshiya Masuda

February 12, 2016 / Johnny / 1 Comment

When you say the words pottery or ceramics most people will think of earthy clay and glazes. Images of old vessels that hold flowers, or used as tableware, might come to mind. On the other side of the spectrum are computer graphics and digital art, a wholly intangible media that’s made of bits and bytes. Combine these two vastly different fields and you get what artist Toshiya Masuda calls “image gap.”

Plock: Art Student Creates Wooden Clock With Over 400 Moving Pieces

February 11, 2016 / Johnny / 6 Comments

Suzuki making adjustments to his 407-piece wooden automaton clock

Kango Suzuki is an art student at the Tohoku University of Art and Design majoring in product design. For his senior thesis exhibition this month he decided to create an automaton, a moving mechanical device that performs a certain task.

Kango had seen automaton’s write messages, such as the one made popular in Hugo. But instead of words, Kango thought it would be fun to create a device that wrote out the time. But even Kango himself didn’t know what he was getting himself into. And that his resulting creation titled “Plock” would consist of over 400 wooden moving pieces.

Kyoto’s New Tsutaya Bookstore

February 9, 2016 / Kaori Freda / Comments Off

As bookstores all over the United States close their doors, helpless against the onset of ebooks, Japan holds steadfast to the cultural importance of the printed page. Just last month, a new bookstore called Kyoto Okazaki Tsutaya opened in Kyoto, heralding a mission to stock their selves with books that will “move the soul” and reinforce Kyoto’s status as a leading cultural center.

The Fantasy Pop Art of Yoshitaka Amano on Display in Tokyo

February 8, 2016 / Johnny / Comments Off

Concept illustration of a city from Final Fantasy VI (1994)

If you were a gamer you knew him from his illustrations for Final Fantasy. If you watched 1970s anime you knew him from his design work for Gatchaman and Tekkaman. If you were a music fan maybe you knew him for his illustrations of David Bowie. Either way, it’s clear that the character designer and illustrator Yoshitaka Amano touched many colors of the art spectrum.

A new exhibition just opened in Tokyo, and spans Amano’s fascinating career with an emphasis on his earlier work.

Lacquered Deerskin and Pac-Man Come Together For Unique Collaboration

February 7, 2016 / Johnny / Comments Off

Inden-ya is a 434-year old family-run company specializing in Koshu Inden, a traditional Japanese craft that consists of lacquer-based printing on deerskin to create leather products. The process was originally developed in India, hence the similar-sounding name, and was used heavily to produce certain parts of samurai armor.

Although samurai armor fell out of demand, the company remains an icon of Japanese craftsmanship and has been producing durable accessories like wallets, coin purses and handbags. But a recent collaboration with another iconic figure of Japan has people rediscovering their products.