at the 2012 Aqua Metropolis Osaka Festival

04May13

The 2012 Aqua Metropolis Osaka Festival offered a series of delights, including a giant inflatable kokeshi doll produced by the artist collective Yotta Groove.  There’s something both benign and menacing about the cute blankness of the kokeshi doll when it’s magnified to kaiju proportions.  Yotta Groove wasn’t the only collective active at the Aqua Metropolis […]

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Tags: 2012 Aqua Metropolis Osaka Festival, art, artwork, こけし, イッテキマスNipponシリーズ”花子”, プロジェクトオバチャーン, film photography, Florentijn Hofman, giant inflatable kokeshi, giant inflatable rubber duck, Holga, installation, kokeshi, mascot, Osaka Obachan, Osaka's drinking water, photography, Project Obachaaan, rubber duck, sculpture, water purification, water purification plant, Yotta Groove, 四十七人のオバチャーン, 巨大アヒルちゃん, 水都大阪2012

infinite mortal: an interview with Andy Diaz Hope

29Nov11

Andy Diaz Hope’s work has taken the form of large-sized portraits of hungover friends constructed out of thousands of gelatine capsules; glittering chandeliers made up of medical supplies and Swarovski crystal; enormous mythologically-styled Jacquard tapestries that feature images of Skylab, the tree of life, and Kurt Friedrich Gödel; and cabinets and mirrored geometric shapes that […]

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Tags: 2011, Andy Diaz Hope, art, contemporary art, exhibit, Future Darwinist, Infinite Mortal, infinity, installation, interview, Laurel Roth, mirrors, science and art

inhabitable forest: an interview with Barbara Andrus

19Nov11

Barbara Andrus, who is based in both New York and Maine, makes installations from found natural materials — particularly forest-foraged wood — that erupt into space like thickets of dream shapes.  These shapes are both familiar — spheres formed by branches, teepees and huts made of found wood — and alien at the same time, the autochthonic twisting of […]

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Tags: Barbara Andrus, inhabitation, installation, natural materials, nature art, sculptural spaces, sculpture

the 2009 Kobe Biennale

25Oct11

The 2011 Kobe Biennale runs through November 23rd, so now seems as good a time as any to drop a post about the 2009 Kobe Biennale, which I attended with my friend Ikko.  I love the Biennale (I also attended the 2007 model), which is full of playful and intelligent artwork, beautiful and interesting displays […]

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Tags: 2009 Kobe Biennale, a world cow house, art, artwork, ハーモニー, ワールドカウハウス, Butsu, Craig Quintero, 石上和弘, 神戸, 神戸ビエンナーレ2009, 福島慶介, 高島亮三, 象戦車, Harmony, Higashikata Yuhei, Honbori Yuji, installation, Joyce Ho, Kaikoh, Kazuhiro Ishigami, Kazuki Hitoosa, kimucha, kobe, Kobe Biennale, LIFE TIMER, Liquid Dreams, orz, Sakurano, sculpture, Shin Tsuchiya, shipping containers, snow bar N43, Takashima Ryozo, talk to earth, Tetsuo Iwaoka, The Tank is an Elephant, YEN DESIGN, 回光, 土屋真, 変態願望, 岩岡哲夫, 川瀬浩介, 本 堀雄二, 東方悠平, 人長果月

rubber ducky, you’re the one

29Sep10

In addition to Yanobe Kenji’s magnificent Torayan exhibit, the 2009 Aqua Metropolis Osaka event had a lot to offer, including community art displays, installations that emphasized the potential of recyclable materials, lots of information about the history of water use and management in Osaka, and — to top it all off — a giant, yellow, […]

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Tags: Aqua Metropolis Osaka 2009, art, artwork, Brobdingnag, Florentijn Hofman, gigantism, Gulliver's Travels, inflatable duck, installation, monstrously huge, Osaka, oversized, pop artwork, pop sculpture, rubber duck, toy duck, 大阪, 巨大アヒルちゃん, 水都大阪２００９

the 2007 Kobe Biennale

24Nov09

November 23rd was the last day of the 2009 Kobe Biennale, which I went to visit last week.  The Biennale is held at the waterfront site of Meriken Park, under the shadow of Kobe’s famous Port Tower and right next to the Maritime Museum.  Because Kobe is historically a port city, the organizers of the […]

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Tags: 2007 Kobe Biennale, A Herd, Akihiro Kumagaya, Animal Expression, art, artwork, こと‐の‐は, しまうま, ドルフィンキック, biennale, 無限の惑星, 熊谷彰博, 生け花, 神戸, 群, Daiichi Shichino, design, Dolphin Kick, Eisuke Tachikawa, exhibit, exhibition, festival, Florian Claar, future ikebana, General Cargo Celestial Mechanics, graphic design, Hans Schohl, ikebana, Infinite Planet, installation, kinetic sculpture, kobe, Kobe People, Koto-no-ha, koyomi, Noriko Shiozawa, ONOYOTONN, pigs, Ryosuke Sai, sculpture, Shibata Michiri, shipping containers, Song Junnam, Star in the TENTEN, Symphonic Light Chamber, wax pigs, Yamashita Ryuuji, Yoon Cyongsu, Zebra, 塩澤徳子, 天々星組, 太刀川英輔, 宰井良輔, 小野養豚ん, 山下竜司, 柴田美千里, 七野大一