Japan Pulse

Japanese people are not known for airing their grievances in public, but a new project has arrived in Tokyo offering locals a new way to speak their mind. The Complaints Choir is the brainchild of Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, a Finnish/German artist duo who conduct workshops and performances where the daily gripes of a city or society are written down and then sung with musical accompaniment.

The Complaints Choir concept has seen over 20 different incarnations around the globe since 2005. They recently hit Japan, and the final works can be seen in an exhibition at the Mori Museum running until February 2010. One of the most interesting aspects of the Complaints Choir is that it is comprised of ordinary people and is completely voluntary. “If we . . . make an open invitation, and if no one wants to take part, then that’s a clear indication that this project is not needed,” explained Kalleinen in an interview with Tokyo Art Beat.

Anyone can take part, she says, but no one is asked directly to ensure that only those who truly want to participate are involved. Complaints made in Japan varied from rude behavior on trains and eating habits to grooming issues.

• More info from Tokyo Art Beat

If you could complain about Tokyo life through song, what would your gripes be? And what musical genre would be the best vehicle? Add your list of grievances in the comments below.

Hironao Tsuboi's mutated light bulb at Prototype in Tokyo Midtown's Design Hub

Due to popular demand, Tokyo Midtown Design Hub’s third annual Prototype exhibition has been extended until Dec. 13. Prototype shows the work of Japanese creators – mostly architects, product designers and furniture designers – with a focus on the creative process and problems of turning an idea into an object. Each display has notes and sketches drawn directly onto the tables by the designers themselves, giving the viewer insight into  their creative process. This makes the show fun for both die-hard design followers and those with only a passing interest. The finished products are beautiful, to be sure, but just as interesting are the scrawled diagrams, and in some cases, the tools used to make the new products on display.

Personal favorites were Teruhiro Yanagihara’s polarized candle holder, Naoki Terada’s coded imunization kit and Ben Nagaoka’s “View Bench” (but we’re even bigger fans of what he and Point Design can do to a room, when given the chance).

Admission is free.

More information at the official Prototype site.

Tokyo Midtown Design Hub site

Yesterday was the first day of the fourth Make: Tokyo meeting held at the Ookuyama campus of Tokyo Institute of Technology. Organized by Make Magazine, it showcases the work of inventors who are not affiliated to large companies. Instead, students, start-ups and hobbyists were there to display their work and share ideas. As you might imagine, the work ranged from the ingenious to the just plain silly, with all shades between. Here are some things that caught my eye.

The prize for most outstanding use of an everyday item had to go to Jinno for his Rainbow Engine, a beautiful kaleidoscopic machine, whose main part consisted of a disk made from Scotch Tape that, when filtered through another disk, created the beautiful display of colors you can see in the video below.

Continue reading about the 4th Make: Tokyo Meeting

Maywa Denki’s toy musical instrument, the Otamatone, was released for over the counter sale at Tokyu Hands Ginza last Saturday and promptly sold out by Monday. Meiwa Denki’s inventive and off-the-wall toys and art performances have been hugely popular both in Japan and the West for a long time now and new products tend to be pounced on by eager customers.

I was lucky enough on Monday to catch a performance that included rendition of “Greensleeves” on the Otamatone (see video above) at O’Crest in Shibuya as part of Japan Music Week. The Otamatone, whose names plays on the Japanese words for “tadpole” and “sound,” is a kind of electronic recorder that emits a sound when you blow through it and squeeze the cheeks of the cute character at the tube’s base.

Continue reading about Maywa Denki →

If you’re into vinyl figurines, get yourself down to the gardens of Meiji Jingu Gaen  for Tokyo Designers Week’s 100% Design. Part of the container ground exhibition includes an exhibit of Kidrobot figures that have been customized by leading designers and creative types, including SU from Japanese hip hop group Rip Slyme and fashion designer Junko Koshino. Organized by Puma and in keeping with Tokyo Design Week’s green theme, the artists were asked to think about the words “green” and “Africa’” for inspiration.

Kidrobot dolls have been hugely popular across the globe since launching in 2002. The figures are now highly regarded as art works in their own right with 13 figures making up part of MoMA’s permanent collection.

If you fancy putting in a bid, visit Design Channel. Profits go to CARE charity in Lesotho, Africa, which helps farmers in the drought-stricken country make efficient use of water resources.

A map for the Kunst Oktoberfest gallery tour

This may be Tokyo Design Week, but there are a number of interesting art events worth your time as well. Some are best seen this weekend:

1) This Saturday only is the Kunst Oktoberfest, a free bus tour of an impressive number of interesting contemporary art galleries. Simply hop on and off the buses as they snake through Chuo-ku to places like Ginza’s Gallery Koyanagi and TOKYO Gallery+B.T.A.P and Bakurocho’s CASHI and Radi-um von Roentgenwerke. The buses give you around twenty minutes at each gallery before whisking you away to the next spot.

Oh, and did I mention that there will be free COEDO beer on the bus? Here’s a review of last year’s. The map you see on the right can be found on the Japanese press release here.

2) ULTRA 002 just opened at Spiral in Omotesando. What makes this contemporary art fair unique is that is focuses on individual directors instead of the galleries they work for. Here you get to see a single person’s vision in ways other fairs can’t provide. Runs until November 3rd.

3) One of the most talked about contemporary artists in the world right now is Cao Fei. Her ongoing “RMB City” project just opened at the Shiseido Gallery in Ginza and is worth a look. The videos you see there all take place in a virtual city she created in Second Life. This even includes an interview about the project with both the artist and interviewer represented by their avatars. Read The Japan Times review here.

4) The artist Ai Wei Wei is another Chinese contemporary heavyweight whose show “According to What?” is on a global tour, and will be at the Mori Art Museum for only one more week. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should. More info on Ai Wei Wei here.

Julian Opie's "Clare with Landscape"

Last week SCAI the Bathhouse opened a new showing of recent works by Julian Opie (until Nov. 14). Unlike last year’s solo exhibition at Art Tower Mito, this show focuses on portraiture work, which can be just as engaging as the  walking and dancing LED figures that many people now associate him with.

Opie collects Japanese art, both old (ukiyo-e masters Kitagawa Utamaro and Utagawa Hiroshige) and new (hand-painted anime cels). You’ll see similarly flat and vivid color schemes in these portraits, but they are far from static.  Take “Clare with Landscape” (right), for example. Depicted on a vertical LCD screen, at first glance the subject stands as regal and motionless as a Rembrandt or Rubens. But then she blinks. Her bracelet then twinkles in the light and her earring sways slightly, as if to her own pulse. The landscape behind her is alive as well, with clouds lazily crossing the sky and the sound of crows and passing cars.

Opie has also recently utilized Lenticular printing to give 18th-century portraiture styles a modern spin. Many of his subjects are larger-than-life.  Seen here, wavering slightly as you walk from one side to the other, their faces stare down on you with a depth that is both intriguing and somewhat unnerving.

SCAI the Bathhouse is a beautiful 5-10 minute walk from Nippori Station, past the Yanaka Cemetary.

Julian Opie’s site and wiki

A small interview on Youtube from the “This is Shanoza” series

How to make an Astro Boy kyarabento, as shown in "Face Food Recipes," available from Mark Batty Publisher. (Christopher D. Salyers photo)

The recession and a growing interest in cost-cutting ingenuity have resulted in an unprecedented amount of bento coverage in the international press. From The Guardian to The Washington Post, major newspapers are spilling plenty of ink over this humble yet refined Japanese tradition.

It’s easy to see why. Bento provide an extremely photogenic platform to explain larger cultural and economic realities for the beleaguered working classes, who in an effort to save money choose the DIY approach to lunch. However, in the New York Times’ opinion blog, “Room for Debate,” several well-known creative minds move beyond proletariat concerns to wax philosophic on the nature of bento and how they represent Japanese society.

John Maeda links traditional boxed lunches to the Japanese “less is more” principal, while Muji creative director Kenya Hara argues that bento preparation is an act of focusing on the beautiful and simple in an ugly, chaotic world. Denis Dutton highlights the love and care placed in a bento’s creation, while Nick Currie (aka Momus) sees bento as a triumph of aesthetics over efficiency.

It would be more than a stretch to call the interest in bento a new trend in Japan. After all, people have making boxed lunches for centuries, and even the buzz around bento boys (弁当男子), those working men who – “gasp!” – prepare their own lunches to save money, goes back at least a few years. But now the kyaraben version of bento are arguably becoming a global art form, with kyaraben contests, budding kyaraben Facebook and Flickr groups, and yes, a Kyaraben iPhone application.

Bonus links:

• The NYT altered Currie’s contribution more than he cared for. Read his original piece here.
• Expired store-bought bento add to Japan’s staggering amount of thrown-away food: 19 million tons a year
• Ever wondered what that plastic grass-like substance is in store-bought bento?