Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
NAM
Nam is a Japanese graphic art collective established by Takayuki Nakazawa (Graphic Designer) and Hiroshi Manaka (Photographer). This is their special project for Digital Temple magazine.
Monday, December 7th, 2009
Taisuke Koyama
Taisuke Koyama describes his works as “organic abstract photography”. He shoots surfaces and various states of degradation of artifacts in a city and thinks about those changes in state as the city’s metabolism- it’s an organism that’s changing every moment. It’s such a simple and beautiful idea.
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
Can Japanese novelty bras really be functional?
My Chopsticks Bra: Enables a user to store foldable compact chopsticks in a side pocket. The bra is designed with bowls of rice and hot miso soup.
Speaking of boobs, Japanese lingerie company Triumph unveiled its Make-The-Putt Bra today. Triumph creates two novelty bras each year, typically centered on important issues in Tokyo. In the past, some have involved solar panels, miso soup, voting and baseball. Take a look at all of them on Huffington Post and make a vote to which you think are best and which are a bust (haha…)!
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
Sekitani Norihiro
Speaking of “festering goodness/grossness”, check out these music videos directed by artist, pervy collage-ist, animator and I guess sort of a Japanese equivalent of Paper Rad, Sekitani Norihiro. They’ll be sure to accompany you into seizures induced by metal death, mashed sound bits and flailing bloody organs. Also be sure to get a good look at the artwork on Sekitani’s site (which is hosted on Geocities, RIP Geocities free hosting!).
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
Daikichi Amano’s Mystical Pornography
Japanese photographer Daikichi Amano creates strangely sexual tableux that bring to life the ancient woodblock tradition of “Shunga” erotica. Vaulting bizarre fetishes to the next level, animals twist into obscure props in some kind of alternate world vision, in which powerful sirens are enveloped by sea creatures and warriors posture. Amano’s White Witch parallel universe is as enchanting as it is macabre. The figures all have a certain allure and potency radiating from them that I can’t explain…. I read somewhere that Amano eats all the animals after the shoots so as to not waste them in a weird, extended, Tantric-magician performative move, perhaps….
Friday, September 4th, 2009
Ryo Kawanishi
I’ve noticed this with many Japanese photographers: the simplicity yet complex compositions, familiar yet abstracted subject matter, and their ability to bring me back to a moment from a movie where I think definitively, “I’ve felt this before”. Photographer Ryo Kawanishi is no exception to this. Looking at his site, I feel almost like I’m listening to a Happy End soundtrack (oh wait, I am) in some Asian suburb. Without really using any mentions of locality in his work, he is able to take me there. He seems to be represented by the webgallery TRYNOME which houses other talents.
Friday, August 28th, 2009
Aquirax Uno
Japanese designer, illustrator, painter Aquirax Uno’s work is characterized by fantastic visuals, capricious and sensuous line flow, flamboyant (and occasionally grotesque) eroticism, and frequent use of collage and bright colors. He was prominently involved with the Japanese underground art of 1960’s-1970’s, dabbling in theater, fashion, film and animation. His work reminds me of Aubrey Beardsley’s- morosely sensual women oozing and dripping with the promise of delightful death…I also found a really interesting interview designer Tara Sinn did with the artist himself on her blog.
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