Lost In Translation

The Body of Color Exhibition

Some friends of mine are having an exhibition at Super Deluxe with an opening party starting next Friday, the 14th. See the postcard above for details.

The One-Eyed Hack

I've always thought that Dale Chihuly was over-rated. A couple of my college friends worked for him designing interiors that he was making pieces for. So we used to aks him how "the one-eyed hack" was when we saw him. It seems that he is suing some of his former employees for copyright infringement. I didn't know there was a copyright for pedestrian, over-rated decorative glass. Here's the article. Slate also pointed out that in 1999 Eric Scigliano argued that Chihuly's success was simply a manifestation of the Washington region's sudden prosperity:

"His is the perfect art for boosters, wannabes, new money, and self-conscious arrivistes. In other words, perfect for the precociously wealthy, culturally callow New Northwest. Glass has the museum seal of approval, but it's supremely (and as practiced by Chihuly) almost purely decorative."

I totally agree. Here's the link to that article.

The Lilliputian

Lorenzo Fantini, and another friend of mine, Jack MacLean, are doing a joint exhibition at Heartland in Roppongi Hills for the next two weeks. Unfortunately I couldn't download the image used for the invitation. There's an exibition party from 5 pm on Sunday the 23th-check it out. I was there last night for the first night and it looks impressive.

"Kafka on The..."

My friend Jack McLean had an interview in the latest edition of Metropolis, he's showing some work at Art Residency Tokyo (A.R.T.) in Ebisu until December 31st, so I'll try to head down on Friday to see how he's been inspired by Murakami's latest novel.

Hokusai Exhibit

Yesterday I went to catch the Hokusai Exhibition, one of the most famous and influential Japanese artists of all time, at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno. He is most famous for 36 Views of Mount Fuji. The panel below is probably the most famous, I remember that a likeness of it was painted on The Riverfront Mall in my hometown Spokane many years ago:

The exhibition was marred by crowds of people. It took 30 minutes just to get inside, I was exhausted before I even saw a picture, and there was a crowd obscuring every exhibit-so it was and uncomfortable and hard to see anything. I went through more quickly than I would have if I wasn't being encroched on by scores of people. I'm surprised that so many people were interested, so, in a way, it's great that that many people would go to such lengths for an art exhibition. In the end, I guess it's my fault for waiting for the last week of the exhibiton to check it out. I have previously been to one exhibition that was as crowded-the traveling Louvre collection was a madhouse, but at that time I didn't have to wait 30 minutes just to get in.

Poop At Pause

Here's a new art installation at Cafe Pause in Ikebukuro.

FCC Art Exhibition

My friends Jack and Lorenzo had another exhibition opening of their impressive art work at the Foreign Correspondants' Club in Yurackucho. It was some more pictures and stories inspired by riding on trains in Tokyo. The pictures and stories are on display in the dining area, of the club and will be there for about a month. I was pleased to meet Henry Scott Stokes, a journalist and writer who has been living in Japan off and on since 1964. He had some great stories about Japan. He is a journalist and the author of several books, including a well-received biography of the famous writer Yukio Mishima.

Art Party

This is one of the works made by my friends Lorenzo and Jack. Another friend, Kelly had a party for them to show off their new work at Tameike Akasaka Tower, a residence that has a rooftop graden for residents to use. Below is the view from the 25th floor garden.

Masks

I saw these topical masks for sale in a book store in Tokyo, near Roppongi.

Yoshitomo Nara-From The Depth Of My Drawer

Last Thursday, my last weekday of freedom-back to work full-time this week, I went to the Yoshitomo Nara art exhibition at The Hara Museum. His work is very distinctive; he has a penchant for malevolent looking children wielding knives for one. It's very pop. Some of his work seems to be inspired from the children's book, Where The Wild Things Are. I liked the patchwork canvases he used for some of his paintings as well-it gives them an interesting looking texture-like a cast or something. His sculptures were really cool as well. On one of them he painted this really irritated looking girl holding a sprig on a giant dish.

In "The Hula Hula Garden" there were mask-like sculptures based on Japanese pop stars Puffy and Namie Amuro, and an unsettling "Grinning Little Bunny" that calls to mind the scary rabbit from Donnie Darko. The exhibition closes next week on the 11th.

This is the courtyard in the back of the museum.