4 posts tagged “tokyo”

Batman and Robin

It's taken me a little while to get this post together, but last Saturday I went down to Tokyo Big Site for the 2008 Tokyo Toy Show.  I had been hoping to see a lot of the new(er) designer plastic being displayed, but was disappointed in that there was very little to be seen.

Although I did enjoy the Hot Toys booth, and seeing the new Revoltech prototypes was pretty cool.

Generally though, had I had a five year old with me, I think it would have been a blast for him / her, and a serious strain for any adults charged with their care and entertainment.

Having said that, I will go back, someday, when I have a five year old of my own.  In the meantime, I have a small set of photos up on Flickr.

Hawaii

Last Saturday I had a bit of free time to kill in downtown Tokyo, so I went to one of my favorite places:  The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.

Through the end of June they are running the 2008 award winners for photojournalism as well as a double exhibition of Daido Moriyama.  Moriyama's exhibitions are a retrospective as well as a recent collection called "Hawaii".

The photojournalism winners was an amazing collection of modern photography, as one would expect, but they were also incredibly graphic.  Scenes of war-torn countryside, shanty towns, extreme poverty, death, and shocking rites of passage filled the gallery to the point of saturation.  While I recognize the importance of the display, it was hard to walk through for any extended amount of time.

The Moriyama exhibits were much tamer, if not any less interesting.  The retrospective suffered from over-exposure to Moriyama's style through no fault of his own.  Moriyama was a pioneer in using what were then "bad" techniques to produce photographic art - things like blur, high grain, stark contrast, off angles, etc. - that have since become so mainstream as to produce a feeling of "oh, this again" in the viewer.  Again, his work is important in a historical, big picture, context, but the exhibition itself did little for me.

On the other hand, Moriyama's "Hawaii" collection was fantastic.  Although he used many of the same techniques that made him famous, when seen together, the individual works combined into a moment much greater than the sum of its parts.  Of course, there were several photos that are moving in and of themselves, works that capture a single frame of time, a single piece of reflected and refracted light, but it was truly the collection that made an impact.

If you're in the Tokyo area, around Ebisu, the exhibitions are definitely worth checking out and the TMMoP is worth supporting in any case because of their consitant excellence.

Last weekend, I made it down to Tokyo Big Site for Design Vesta Vol. 27.

The Festa (festival) is a twice annual art and design event where artists can set up booths to display, promote, or sell their art.  Painters, sculptors, musicians, and every other stripe of artist imaginable are all represented in the mess of several thousand exhibitors.

The quality varies, of course, and while there is a lot of talent evident, style choices seem to be a bit limited; many of the younger artists' work were indistinguishable from their neighboring artists' work.  Bright colors and abstract expressionism seemed to outweigh any sort of representational work by 10 to 1, and while that is not a bad thing, it did contribute to the feeling of everything looking like everything else.

However, there were a few artists that I noticed (read bought prints from):

Kaoru Kamui - Kamui works in digital art and has been at it for the three years or so since she graduated from university with a degree in graphic design.

Yoshida Suzuka - Yoshida does beautiful watercolor and acrylic paintings of small, quiet scenes.

Taishi Douchin - Douchin does small, fun illustrations with marker and pen on poster boards.  Unfortunately, he does not have much available yet, but he is hoping to get a book made soon.

Ko-Hey Harada - Ko-hey has two series of posters out, The Jokers, a group of rock and roll inspired images, and the Marshmallow Kings, a lighter, more romantic set of images.

U-suke - U-suke has created a fun character called Chonmage Kacho (Chonmage is the top knot that samurai warriors wore, and Kacho means president of a company.)  There is a book and DVD available collecting the best images featuring the character.

Hotanism - I'm not actually sure of the designer's name.  The person at the booth was very shy and would not speak to me.  But the website is up and has some interesting stuff on it.  I was most interested in Black Rabbit.

Kei Gallery - Again, I don't know who the designer is; the booth was unmanned when I found it.  But I love the Chess figures and should they ever market an affordable set, I will but it.

And that was the best I saw.  If you have a chance, and if you're a fan of new and independent art, I recommend you check out the Festa.

What's the best photo you took this year?  Show and tell!

My current favorite, from yesterday, in Akihabara:

Couple

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