Yesterday was spent mainly at AIT (art initative tokyo) with a group of San Francisco CCA curatorial students who had been in the city a week with Kate Smith – a curator who used to work in the UK. They introduced a whole load of Californian artists and then the day broadened to include a very diverse group of ‘others’ and that included me. Each speaker had just 5 minutes – signalled by a crowing alarm clock – to present their work, so it was pretty dynamic! Of interest – in extreme brief - were:
ACC (Autonomous cultural centre) – Weimar / Germany
Peter Bellers – Uk artist based in Tokyo –& Command N project
Makimato Masato – Akhibara TV – use of all the front window TVs in stores in city’s electronics district
The Common Room, Indonesia
We also hooked up with expat Kate Fowler & her Japanese husband who will accompany us to Iwate for most of next week and are incredibly helpful networkers. Today too much time was spent at the Mori Centre (built by uncle of japanese uber artist Mariko Mori – not starving in a garret there then) where the big cahuna art centre is, director is from the UK – Peter Elliott. It appears to be within a Dubai-style shopping mall but the shops are dull and scattered throughout in a random way – the highlight was the garden where some fish that appear to be related to one that went into space (?!) on one of the shuttles – have been deposited into the pond as an act of intergalactic harmony (very important to the japanese).
The day ended at Haranjuku, which to align with Camden Market in London would be a little unfair but it is comparable in crowds and average age.
BUT instead of an overall goth-theme (though it appears) there’s a pink lolita theme and the streets include yet more megoliths of consumerism – our favourite (obviously) was called The Forest, where Adam happily had his photo taken with a glamourous transvestite.
Other highlights included:
The puppy shop – very sad very small dogs in striplit capsules – average price £600
A fancy dress shop for pets – in the window a bee costume for small dogs
Personal ashtrays which smokers use here - a kind of portable metal envelope for your ash
Some very lovely kimono wearers – I am a convert
1 comment:
o hayo gozaimasu!
I never did give you any recommendations of things to go and see so off the top of my head - In tokyo go to the fish market at 5am (or something very early), go to Odaiba - take the cable car over the rainbow bridge to odaiba which is man made land reclaimed from the sea. Go just before sunset and watch the karaoke boats from the manmade beach, try Nato, fermented bean curd that is incredibly chewy and a bit of a favourite, vists the Nezu shrine and the washi and pigment shops and tofu shops in the area as well as the abundant plants in pots outside every wooden house, go wash your money in the shrine on the way to the big buddah in Kamakura, eat 'traditional japanese pizza soup' in a small teppanyaki restaurant, eat sushi wrapped in cabbage leaves, visit kiddy land, buy your fortune, play the drums in an amusement arcade, go to akihabara and shibuya at night just to look, have tea at the top of a sky scraper, have as many japanese baths as possible, go to the 100 yen shops and buy fireworks, learn some japanese and don't let drunk business men on the metro youch your hair! (maybe that was just me!)
Keep writing the blog, will keep reading. ja mata
Jeanie x
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