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Your Guide to Design and Pop Culture in Tokyo

Yayoi Kusama at Audi Forum Tokyo

Yayoi Kusama

An exhibition of works by Yayoi Kusama is currently on at the Audi Forum Tokyo building in Harajuku, and will run until January 5. Here’s a look at last week’s opening party.

Three French Hens

Three

Yuki Nakano has certainly been keeping busy since moving to Australia, and her latest project is a piece entitled “3 – Three French Hens,” part of the “Artist’s Dozen, a contemporary remix of a traditional Christmas carol” installation in Brisbane. It will be on display until December 24.

Update: More photos of Yuki’s installation.

Tanada Piece Gallery

Tanada Piece Gallery

Beautiful new gallery in the city of Kyotanabe (near Kyoto) called Tanada Piece Gallery, featuring a rice field-inspired interior by Japanese architecture studio Geneto.

Momus in Tokyo

Momus in Tokyo

Momus is indeed in Tokyo for a few weeks — as you’ll know if you follow his Click Opera blog, which has turned into a literal Tokyo/Japan lovefest since his arrival — and he also has a free show planned for December 22 (from 20:30) at the recently opened GM Ten Gallery in Azabu Juban, a space produced by Osaka designers Graf.

Starting December 20, the gallery will be hosting an exhibition of works by manga legend Eico Hanamura — here’s an interview with Hanamura on PingMag which was, believe it or not, published during my short tenure there.

TAB iPhone App Startup Screen

TAB iPhone App Startup Screen

It may not have come out in November as promised (it will soon though), but here’s a sneak peek at what the startup screen for Tokyo Art Beat‘s iPhone app will look like. The image was created by AQ‘s Eiko Nagase.

Fixie Girl

Fixie Girl

Tim Rudder took the afternoon to draw a girl on a fixed gear bike, and walks us through the process.

Street Art in Tokyo

A video showing street art and stickers in Tokyo, from the RUN FFM Popculture blog.

No Man’s Land

No Man's Land

TABlog has a photo report from last week’s opening of the “No Man’s Land” exhibition, which runs until January 31.

Polly Yates

Polly Yates

Today marks the last day of artist Polly Yates’ exhibition, showing works from her “Lacemakers” series, at Cafe Pause, so you still have time to check it out if you haven’t already.

When the time came to roll up the laces again, we both sighed; it took so long; but we weren’t willing to entrust it to anyone else. Just think, if we had to make them, Maman said, looking really frightened. I couldn’t imagine that at all. I caught myself thinking about little animals incessantly spinning these Things and which for that reason are left in peace. No, of course they were women. The women who made these have certainly gone to heaven, I said, filled with awe…. Maman took a deep breath; the laces once again lay rolled up together. After a while, when I had already forgotten my last words, she said, quite slowly, To heaven? I think they are completely in these laces. Each one, looked at in the right way, can become an eternal bliss. We know so little about it.

- Rainer Maria Rilke, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

Polly Yates

The Lacemakers series is a body of work that explores absence, femininity and desire. Polly Yates has exhibited in England, Germany, the US and Japan. She is currently living in Tokyo.

Japan Brand in NYC

Japan Brand in NYC

Felissimo in New York is hosting a Japan Brand pop-up shop during the holidays (until December 24), and it’s been getting some coverage on a bunch of NYC-based blogs, including JoshSpear.com and Spoon & Tamago.

Pictured above is a bicycle designed by Gelman, made of lacquer, silver plating, and gold leaf. It was created for his “Gelman’s Masterpieces” exhibition earlier this year at the Kakitsubata gallery in Nakameguro. I was actually given the chance the take it for a spin after the show was over, but I chickened out — was just too nervous that I might crash it or something.

Rat Hole Gallery Re-opens

Rat Hole Gallery

The Rat Hole Gallery in Aoyama has recently re-opened, and TABlog posts a photo report of the first show to occupy the renovated space, “Oil,” by Isa Genzken. The exhibition runs until December 27.

Tokyo STOP

During last week’s PauseTalk (Vol. 35), Imre Ostmann introduced us to an art project he’s been working on called “Tokyo STOP.” The idea is to take a “long exposure photograph of seven people standing in a dead-end road during sunset.” He’s done four areas so far, and is looking for some volunteers for upcoming dates — you’ll find all the details here, including his contact info.

No Man’s Land

No Man's Land

The French Embassy in Tokyo has recently moved to new premises, and to commemorate this is holding a special exhibition at the old location. “No Man’s Land” (November 26 to January 31) features a vertigo-inducing number of participants, including my fellow Radio OK Fred co-host, Audrey Fondecave.

And speaking of Radio OK Fred — on hiatus since the start of my health problems — I can tell you that we’re planning on recording a new episode soon-ish, and before that you’ll get to hear two episodes that were recorded (but not yet edited) earlier this summer. Here’s a link to the last episode that was uploaded (#14).

Yume no Byouin Project

Yume no Byouin Project

Beautiful (and simple) site design featuring the illustrative work of Yorifuji Bunpei. Via Paul Baron.

Kodai

Kodai

Coming up at the Kakitsubata gallery in Nakameguro is the show “Kodai,” running from November 25 until December 6.

Kodai

PauseTalk

PauseTalk is a regular series of events that take place at Cafe Pause on the first Monday of every month, with a start time of 20:00. The idea is to create a forum where Tokyo-based creatives can get together and discuss their own projects, as well as cultural currents of the city. The next edition happens June 4.

We hereby define a new term, that of the magaziner, described as a person who exerts an unhealthy amount of love for all things magazine. The Magaziner is a site that mostly focuses on the intersection between magazines and the digital frontier, and what it means for the medium. This does not preclude the inclusion of a healthy amount of print love.

Codex is a weekly music podcast hosted by Jean Snow, recorded in Tokyo. Playlists for all episodes are posted on the site, and you can subscribe to RSS feeds of posts and episodes.

Jean Snow is a contributor to Arcade Mania, your guide to the arcade gaming scene in Japan (Amazon US/Amazon Japan). He also provided assistance on Tokyolife: Art and Design, a guide to Tokyo's cultural output of the past few years, covering the works of over 80 influential creatives.
He will be contributing to the upcoming fifth editions of The Rough Guide to Tokyo and The Rough Guide to Japan, due for release in 2011.

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PechaKucha

Jean Snow is Executive Director of the PechaKucha organization. He also helps run the PechaKucha Night in Tokyo -- please get in touch if you are interested in presenting at a future event. For a more intimate salon-like discussion group, join him at his monthly PauseTalk event.

A longtime resident of Tokyo, he lives and breathes design, pop culture, and gaming, sustained by an unhealthy addiction to magazines and frequent visits to his favorites cafes. He has reported on these obsessions for various online/offline publications, including the following: Time, Inside (Australian Design Review), Gizmodo, Gridskipper, Kotaku, 1UP, Tokyo Q, Superfuture, OK Fred, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, I.D. (International Design), Metropolis, Azure, MoCo Loco, Kateigaho International Edition, Wired's Game|Life, PingMag, CNNGo, Phaidon, and The Japan Times.

You can subscribe to an RSS feed of this site, and also follow him on Twitter and Facebook, or get in touch by email.

 

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The "Jean Snow" logo is written using the free Kirimomi Swash typeface. The "M31" logo is by Ian Lynam, and is part of a series of 31 unique designs. The site's design is based on the Grid Focus WordPress theme by Derek Punsalan.

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