An Afternoon in Ginza

Had a great, great day today on one of my first outings in quite a while. I went to Ginza, and also met up with Paul, so we did a few galleries together. First, the GGG of course, for the 2005 TDC exhibition. I really liked this, they had some really nice pieces on display (great interactive programs on a few PCs). Although it’s been featured in a bunch of places, I am so in love with the design work that Taku Satoh has done for the NIHONGO DE ASOBU children’s show on NHK. A simple little animated piece with just a hiragana character jumping around and making noise (its own sound) had me smiling the whole time. But it also got me and Paul agreeing that it seems like the Japanese are very much into choosing an IT boy/girl, and then just pushing the hell out of him/her. Satoh is mentioned everywhere, included in countless exhibitions, and it’s starting to feel like he represents the whole of Japanese design. Which is not true, of course.

We then made our way to Creation Gallery G8, where we saw a terrific show on the French designer Paul Cox (today was the opening day). We were also very luck to get to meet him, as he was in the adjacent cafe. Do try to catch this. It just felt like a breath of fresh air, with attractive concepts and lovely color arrangements — it really seems to suit the warm Spring weather we’ve been getting of late.

Paul had to get back to work (reluctantly), so I continued on by myself. I stopped at the Sony building to check out the showroom, and then backtracked to get to the Tokyo Gallery, where I really wanted to see the Wang Tong photography exhibtion, “Mao on the Wall,” featuring pictures he took in China of propaganda imagery (mostly images of Mao Zedong). I really liked this, and picked up a set of 20 postcards for Yuko, which she absolutely loved.

Then, on to the Design Gallery at Matsuya for a show on packaging design. I didn’t quite get what the theme was, but the focus looked to be on foodstuff from Okinawa. For once I skipped my blog stop at the Apple Store, and instead went directly to Muji Yurakucho for a little snack and latte. Also picked up a nice light jacket.