Ryo Shimura, a young artist and sculpter working primarily with plastic, uses his art to tackle major environmental issues like endangered species. His latest work “29000→600” illustrates the dramatic drop in wild hippos due primarily to poaching destruction of habitat. The effect of seeing a plentiful number of numerous figurines, but then learning that’s how many are left, is quite impactful. His work was recognized last year when it won an award at the 2011 Eco & Art awards hosted by Konica Minolta.
Here’s a look at some of his other work, which includes meerkat crayons (in a full spectrum of 36 colors!) as well as sad-faced pandas and walruses.
Although we haven’t had much snow in New York, for Brooklyn-based designer Takeshi Miyakawa it was a white Christmas!
“A Happy New Year” from graphic designers NAM, in their signature style of distortion.
New Year on you iPhone. As he did last year, industrial designer Akihiro Kumagaya created “2012” wallpaper for your iPhone using a few simple lines and the shapes of your apps. You can download it here.
Simply titled “BUILD,” design-duo SPREAD‘s New Year’s card is a minimal yet optimistic message for Japan’s future.
I loved this card created by Daigo Daikoku for Musabi (Musashino Arts University). Click here for detailed shot.
Botanic artist Makoto Azuma created an abstract and exotic dragon-motif flower arrangement
Graphic designer Atsushi Kawakami uses a play on words to transform Hatsuhinode (the first sunrise of the year) to “Tatsuhinode,” incorporating both the dragon and the sunrise into his New Year’s card.
UK-based indistrial designer Tomoko Azumi showed off her prized stamp collection in her New Years card. Because the dragon is the only fictitious animal to appear in the 12 zodiac animals, the sea horse (tatsu no otoshigo; 竜の落とし子) is often used as a motif instead.
I love graphic designer Chikako Oguma‘s hand-drawn style.
And last but certainly not least, I couldn’t help including this adorable card from my friend and graphic designer Aaron Stewart.
unless otherwise noted, all images courtesy David Zwirner Gallery
In case you were wondering what sculpted time looks like, now you know.
On Kawara, the conceptual artist and one of the few Japanese artists who are taught in Art History 101, is in town – he has a new exhibition at David Zwirner Gallery in New York. The show, which runs through February 11, 2012, primarily features Kawara’s series of Date Paintings, which he started in 1966. The minimal works consist of nothing but the date on which the painting was executed – a mark, or fragment if you will, of his existence on that particular day. If Kawara is unable to complete a painting during a single day it is destroyed. In case you were wondering what sculpted time looks like, now you know.
My personal experience in interacting with Kawara’s paintings has not been pleasant. Although visually they are as quiet as can be, I find them incredibly loud. As I stare at them I’m ironically assaulted by all the chaotic possibilities of that single day. I think if I stayed too long my head would explode.
While it would appear that stencils were used to achieve the uniformity seen in each work, every date was skillfully hand-painted – Kawara preferred it that way. But his obsessive-compulsive behavior didn’t end there. He also methodically and meticulously recorded every painting in a journal, from a color swatch of the paint mixture he used to a year and a letter indicating its size.
all photos by Dominic Alves (installation view at ICN Gallery) | click to enlarge
What you’re looking are not actual goldfish preserved in some sort of embalming fluid. Instead, they are 3-dimensional fish that rise up from the surface through a process of: 1) a single layer of paint 2) a single layer of resin 3) repeat. (scroll to the bottom to see a video of the process)
The goldfish, writes Fukahori, was my salvation.
The goldfish holds a very special place in the heart of any child who’s ever been to a matsuri (street festival) in Japan. Kingyo-sukui is the game of “goldfish scooping” and is a staple of any summer street festival, along with the masks, water balloon yo-yos, fireworks and yummy food.
But for artist Riusuke Fukahori, the goldfish was not just a relic of long-lost childhood. As he painfully lay in his room one night, struggling and suffering, about to give up on his art, he looked over and saw a goldfish. His neglected fish of 7 years sputtered about in a cesspool of mold and feces – a common fate endured by most festival souvenirs.
Fukahori felt a shiver run down his spine. What he suddenly saw was a beautiful animal, glowing in bright red, living and surviving. The artist pulled out his paint and set to work, immediately triggering some sort of chemical reaction in his brain. Fukahori had looked far and wide – in Europe, the U.S. and Japan – for his muse. But in an instantaneous form of enlightenment he knew that all along it was right there in his room, inside that dirty fish tank. The goldfish, writes Fukahori, was my salvation.
And did you know, with a little help from the grammar gods, Kingyo-sukui (金魚すくい), the festivities of goldfish scooping, can also be read 金魚救い- goldfish salvation.
the home features a dramatic “stage” above the kitchen that pours in tons of sunlight as if someone rolled up the awnings on the sun
Ever since Bunzo Ogawa completed his public restrooms project in 2010 I’ve been a huge fan of his fantastic work. The architect’s latest home, which was just uploaded to his website, is no exception. Titled “Light Stage House” and located in Hiroshima, the home features a dramatic “stage” above the kitchen that pours in tons of sunlight as if someone rolled up the awnings on the sun.
The rounded details of the home and its curvaceous figure give it a futuristic spaceship-quality. What a great space to totally lose yourself in.
The home was completed in mid-2011 but just recently uploaded to the architects’ website. Despite being built on just a 30-tsubo plot of land – a little over 1000 sq ft – it’s impressive what the architect dud to give it such an airy feel and so much sunlight.
Ever since our launch in ’07 we’ve pretty much had the same look and feel. And it’s worked out so far but a few things been clawing at me so I finally decided to do something about them.
New banner and column width
One thing I’ve always wanted is a wider content column. Although I love to write, the site is pretty image-heavy so it only made sense to optimize it for better image viewing. As a result, I also re-shot our banner images to match the new width. It feels a bit different but still features our iconic dolls, which were designed by the awesome people at Groovisions. (oh, and they’re slightly differentoneachpage)
Explore
“Explore” is a new page that I’m pretty excited about. As we state in our manifesto of sorts, one of our objectives is to tell a story – “what’s going on in the Japanese art & design industry and where is it headed.” This page helps shape that story. If you’re interested at all, please do check it out.
There are a few other things that I’ll be tweaking in the coming weeks but I just wanted to let you know what was going on. If you see anything funky, or have any suggestions, please leave me feedback in the comments (be nice…please) or drop me a line.
Although the changes aren’t major, I couldn’t have done it without the help of Michael Miller at AQ in Tokyo!
Late Friday evening in Japan artist Takashi Murakami took to the airwaves of twitter to vent about “Cool Japan” – the government’s campaign to promote modern Japanese culture abroad. And he proceeded to rip apart everyone involved as well, from artists and designers to ad agencies. Below are a selection of tweets, accompanied by Spoon & Tamago translations.
Dear ad agencies and bureaucrats! Attention please. Stop inviting me to “Cool Japan” events, interviews or sending any kind of offers whatsoever. I have absolutely no connection to “Cool Japan.” Thank you.
I can’t understand why artists get involved with the gimmicks of ad agencies who are simply trying to turn a profit with “Cool Japan” (of course they’re free to do what they like…)
I wish they would stop with this nonsense – the ad agencies are just milking the “Cool Japan” budget. It really pisses me off to think that a few individuals are in bed with each other, licking up the money that came out of our country’s deficit. And the ad agencies who strut about pretending to be creative disgusts me.
What a fantastic shot by artist and photographer Katsuhiro Saiki. His new show “Resolution” just opened at hpgrp gallery in New York. It runs until January 28th. I know what my first show of the new year is going to be!
image courtesy the artist | click to enlarge
Here’s another great piece by the artist. “Double” is a photograph of a blue sky with a vapor trail of an aircraft. The vapor trail divides the picture into two as if it was a diptych. Below is a closeup shot.
January 5, 2012 / Johnny / Comments Off on The Earthling | an illustrated comic series by Tatsuro Kiuchi
I love this new illustrated comic series by Tatsuro Kiuchi (previously). Titled “The Earthling,” the serial comic strip has been running in the quarterly magazine Kangaeru Hito. The quirky comic strips at first seem to have an environmental slant to them, but others are just pure nonsensical. The cast of characters include an earth hugger, tea stalk, fairy of dust (aka “dust angel”), an invisible dog, and a human plant. Love it!
Kiuchi just recently created a website, making his entire series available for free in both Japanese and English. I think my favorites are Fur Coat, Chance Encounter and Pop-in Book. (below is Way Back, another one of my favorites)
January 4, 2012 / Johnny / Comments Off on CS Design Award posters by Kazumasa Nagai
It’s 2012 and that means the biannual CS Design Design Awards are back for their… 30th year! They’re accepting applications now so I won’t be posting about results until later this year. If you’re interested, you can read about the 2010 awards.
But today I wanted to focus on a different aspect of the event: the posters. Except for the first 4 years, the CS Design Award posters have been illustrated by legendary graphic designer Kazumasa Nagai. Currently in his 80s, Nagai is responsible for such iconic corporate logos as (click to view) Japan Railways, Nissin, Mitsubishi UFJ and the now notorious TEPCO (which is unfortunate, to say the least, but that’s a different story).
When it came to poster design, Nagai had a penchant for using animals and patterns to create unique, timeless and visually dynamic imagery. Take a look at the posters he did for the CS Design Awards, including the latest for 2012. It’s fascinating to see how they started off dark and exotic – some are almost sinister – and progressed to what can currently be described as minimal and cute. If you like Nagai’s work there’s a great collection of posters over on Pink Tentacle.
