JETAA Northern California: Pacific Bridge: Fiber Futures: Japan’s Textile Pioneers Opens
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This summer and fall, the Museum of Craft and Folk Art (MOCFA) in San Francisco is proud to present a traveling exhibition co-organized by the Japan Society (New York), Tama Art University (Tokyo), and International Textile Network Japan. Fiber Futures: Japan’s Textile Pioneers explores a new art that is emerging from a remarkable fusion of Japanese artisanal and industrial textile making. Coaxed from materials as old as hemp and as newly developed as microfilaments, a varied array of more than 25 works by artists from multiple generations will be on view in this extraordinary two-part exhibition.
By transcending and cutting across the limitations imposed by the inherited oppositions between art, craft, and design, this two-part exhibition brings together over 20 contemporary Japanese artists who are active at the cutting edge of the global fiber-art movement. These men and women transform fabrics into sculptures, pictures, emulations of nature, and even abstract meditations on memory and identity. The materials range from silk, cotton, recycled cocoons, antique paper scraps, jute, and hemp to stainless-steel wire and weaving and dyeing technology. Ultimately the goal is expressing an environmentally sustainable ethos.
The opening reception of Fiber Futures was on July 20, 6-8pm and offered an exciting opportunity to preview the exhibition and meet several artists and curators visiting from Japan. Special guests in attendance included Joe Earle, Vice President and Director of the Japan Society Gallery, and distinguished artists, Machiko Agano, Akio Hamatani, and Hiroko Watanabe (President of International Textile Network Japan). In addition to a delicious sake tasting hosted by the innovative and contemporary Japanese restaurant, Ozumo, who shared some of Japan’s finest premium and limited edition sakes, entertainment included TOMOSAITO, the guitarist/beat producer of FOTOS. The exhibit runs until the 3rd of November this year.
Nicole Crescenzi, Development and Curatorial Associate
Museum of Craft and Folk Art
51 Yerba Buena Lane
San Francisco, CA 94103
For a print version of the article, click here.
JapanLocal: Tokyo Moves Video
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Patrick Lee (also known as Pat Leezy) is a current 2nd year JET in Nagasaki-ken who specializes in videography. His videos can be seen on his Youtube Channel. He can be contacted through Facebook and Twitter.
Tokyo is a city of contrasts. Its towering skyscrapers and neon-lit nights suggest a modern metropolis ceaselessly advancing into its future. Yet Japan’s capital visibly prides itself on its rich heritage, preserving various historical landmarks throughout the city. Pat spent a week this past April during cherry blossom week exploring this delicate relationship with his point-and-shoot camera.
SCBWI Tokyo Illustration Day with John Shelley
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SCBWI-Tokyo Publicity Assistant Suzanne Kamata (Tokushima 1988-90) shares the following:
Sunday August 19, 2012
SCBWI Tokyo Illustration Day with John Shelley:
Breathing Life Into Your Pictures
Power up your pictures! Give your illustrations vitality and zest! This SCBWI Tokyo Illustration Day featuring illustrator John Shelley will focus on techniques that children’s illustrators use to create resonance in their work and will explore how visual psychology works to convey mood, emotion, and movement. The Action and Emotion Illustration Assignment to be completed in advance of the workshop provides an opportunity for illustrators to develop their craft through open critiques at the event.
Time: Sunday, August 19, 2012, 9:00 am-5:00 pm
Place: Tokyo Women’s Plaza, Audiovisual Room, A & B
5-53-67 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo (by the Children’s Castle and United Nations University). For a map see www.scbwi.jp/map.htm Read More
JET alum wins “Japan Day @Central Park” poster contest
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Congratulations to Aaron Porter (ALT Kyoto-fu, Yawata-shi, 1998-2001), who is the 2012 winner of New York’s “Japan Day @Central Park“ poster contest!
From the JapanDayNYC.org website:
“Japan Day – Cherry Blossom Art Contest”
Contest Results
WINNER
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Japan’s gift of cherry trees to the New York City, Japan Day invited visual artists to submit artwork that featured the beautiful of both cherry trees and Central Park.
Thanks to all of your support, the art contest received total of 45 submissions. All Jurors will agree that, there were a number of impressive entries that made the selection process a challenge. In fact, the Judges also awarded 5 honorable mentions, in addition to choosing a winner.
We are delighted that we can now reveal the winner of the Japan Day Cherry Blossom Art Contest — Aaron Porter and his art work!
【Japan Day 2012 Official Poster Visual using Mr. Porter’s Art Work】
From Aaron’s profile on the Japan Day NYC website:
Aaron is originally from Chicago and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Scientific Illustration from Northern Illinois University. He began his career as a newspaper artist in South Florida in 1988 in a pre-digital world. Aaron first worked for the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, then the Miami Herald. While in South Florida, Aaron earned a MFA in painting at the University of Miami.
Shortly after finishing his course work, he was accepted into the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program the summer of 1998. He taught English in four junior high schools in Yawata City (Kyoto Prefecture) and still to this day considers it the most exciting three years of his life. While in Japan, he spent his spare time getting to know Japanese culture and painting. His paintings during this period were most often about Japanese culture. During his time in Japan, he had a painting exhibition at the Kyoto International Center in Kyoto Station as well as a number of other small shows in coffee houses and wherever he could get his work shown.
Aaron returned to the States the summer of 2001 and began his new career in newspapers at The Journal News in White Plains, New York. Presently, Aaron is a part-time digital art instructor at the Bronx Community College as well as a freelance graphic artist and illustrator.
Aaron is married to a Japanese woman from Fukuoka whom he met in New York City after he returned from Japan. They live in Up State New York, visit NYC often and travel to Japan each year to visit her family. Much to his wife’s disappointment he speaks very little Japanese.
WIT Life #197: DC Sakura Matsuri, Part 2
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WIT Life is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Today is the big parade to celebrate the centennial sakura matsuri, but unfortunately all the blooms are long gone. However, the festival goes through the end of the month, so for those who find themselves in DC there are plenty of Japan-related activities to keep you entertained. I had a chance to sample many of them this week, the first of which I’d recommend being the National Geographic Museum’s samurai exhibit running through early September.
It shares the history of how the now legendary cherry trees made their way to DC, as well as displays unique items such as swords and armor that were gifted from Read More
WIT Life is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting
tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
I’m down in DC to begin a new business trip, and was thrilled when I found out my assignment would coincide with the famous Sakura Matsuri. This year is extra special as it marks the 100th anniversary since the 3000+ trees were gifted from Japan to the U.S. Even the Metro gets into the spirit, as you can see with their turnstile decorations. Due to the warm weather it is doubtful that the blossoms will last until the conclusion of the festival at the end of the month, but I’m hoping to do some hanami while I’m here.
On another Japa
n-related note, today I went to see an interesting exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery entitled “Asian American Portraits of Encounter.” It features several different Asian American artists, including three Japanese. One is Satomi Shirai based in New York, the second is Shizu Saldamando based in California, and the last is Roger Shimomura based in Read More
LAST CHANCE – “Fall Flowers of Japan” @ NY Botanical Garden until 10/30/2011
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Carolyn Brooks (Ishikawa-ken, Kanazawa, 2006-11) is co-author of the blog MadSilence–a cross-cultural blog written with her father–and a current culture/education related job-seeker in the NY area available for full-time or consulting work.
Feeling a bit homesick for the full moon, momiji and manju that are signs of fall in Japan? Despair not, for 4 days remain of the wonderful “Fall Flowers of Japan” display at the New York Botanical Garden. It will continue until Sunday, October 30th, 10AM to 6PM, and costs (a completely worthwhile) $20 to see. The main focus of the display is kiku, chrysanthemums. They have dozens of varieties to see, including traditional shapes and colors from Japan trained into waterfalls or bridges, and new strains bred in American which look like bird’s nests and exploding stars.
These mums were bigger than a grapefruit, and were so glossy and translucent that they should be made of spun sugar!
Les Pumps: Japan-inspired Shoe Art
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by Lee-Sean Huang (ALT, Oita-ken, 2003-06). Lee-Sean is an artist, designer and educator based in New York City. He is the webmaster of JetWit and JETAANY. His new Art & Design Observer series features profiles art, design, and culture with a Japanese flavor.
Les Pumps is a collection of handmade art by the Barcelona-based Brazilian artist Caio de Paula Marques that uses vintage women’s shoes as 3D canvases. Caio decorates the shoes with hand-painted details and applies old manga art as a collage. The first Les Pumps collection is called “Sakura Vintage,” and Caio cites Japan as a major influence for his creative work. Are there any JET visual artists out there whose work has been influenced by Japan? Let us know in the comments, and we can feature your work here on JetWit.
According to the artist:
Les Pumps was born out of the need of creating an artistic project, in a more old fashion way, that involved manual crafts and to have a little break from using mainly digital tools as I have done as a graphic designer in the past years.
So in the search for interesting structures, aiming to work in a three dimensional way, and being a shoe lover myself, such fetishistic object of the feminine world seemed the perfect canvas for my art work.
Many hours have been put into each pair, from the investigation and purchase of the shoes, through which I´ve learned a great deal (now I can tell the difference between a pair of pumps from a pair of stilettos) and the many steps of execution till the final piece is ready, an average of 15 hours is needed.
For my first collection, the main motif has been SAKURA (meaning cherry blossom) so full of symbolism in Japan, reflecting the great interest I’ve always had towards this country and its culture ever since I can remember.
Perhaps the most innovating about this collection has been the use of COLLAGE, technique that allows the creations of different contexts and in this case, also recycles other artist’s works, which also relates to the concept of Vintage. Once more, the Nipponic culture is present as the paper I use is actually from 80’s manga.
VINTAGE SHOES have been my choice, as they convey history and strengthen the artistic value and the concept of uniqueness.
JQ Magazine: Art Review – ‘Fiber Futures: Japan’s Textile Pioneers’ at Japan Society
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From left to right: 'Feel the Wind' (2010), by Fuminori Ono; 'Birth' (2011) by Hitomi Nagai; 'Su no hana' (Nest Flowers) (2011) by Takaaki Tanaka. (Vlad Baranenko)
By Vlad Baranenko (Saitama-ken, 2000-02) for JQ magazine. Vlad is an avid photographer.
Opening this week at New York’s Japan Society is the exhibit Fiber Futures: Japan’s Textile Pioneers, which showcases the works of Japanese textile masters and explores the ever evolving relationship between traditional fabric manufacturing and the uses of unconventional technology and materials to create awe-inspiring works of art. To commemorate the opening of the gallery and the designation of the Japan Society building as a city landmark, a special preview event was held on Sept. 14 with many of the artists in attendance along with an exhibition walkthrough from gallery director Joe Earle.
Originally conceived in 2007, the project received approval following this year’s devastation in Japan, and is jointly presented by Japan Society and the International Textile Network Japan in collaboration with Tama University. According to Japan Society, the collection of 35 works on display was thoroughly selected by a special committee to showcase the work of 30 contemporary masters of a movement originally envisioned in the 1950s to “reflect the fecundity of the Japanese artistic tradition and ingenuity.” Since many of the pieces had to make a long journey from Japan to New York, unique containers had to be meticulously designed for each piece to preserve the artist’s intended presentation and allow the viewer to fully appreciate each work.
To simply describe the collection as a stunning example of creativity and the profound Japanese insight into the coexistence of nature and man would not be enough to credit the artists on display. The exhibition explores such themes as the passage of time and seasons just to name a few. While many of the works are composed of traditional materials such as silk and washi paper, modern materials such as stainless steel, vacuum deposited aluminum, and complex chemical dyes are also added to create three-dimensional enchanting expressions.
Signs of a setsuden summer
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Posted by Tom Baker (Chiba-ken, 1989-91), coauthor of The Sushi Lover’s Cookbook and Tokyo Chic and contributor to Time Out Tokyo and Time Out Shortlist Tokyo. He blogs as “Tokyo Tom Baker.”
“Setsuden,” or conserving electricity, has become a huge buzzword in Japan as the weather heats up and many nuclear power plants remain shut down. Many businesses have put up signs explaining their own setsuden activities and asking the public to join in.
Recently I have been been photographing setsuden signs around the Tokyo area for my blog.
Some of the signs are very simple and functional, like the message seen here on a closed escalator at a train station, which simply says, “Setsuden-chuu.”
Others are clever pieces of writing and/or graphic design.
I have a gallery of signs here, as well as explanations of my picks for the best-designed sign here and the best slogan here.
Earthquake Support Event: WE ARE HERE – Little voice and art 311 Japan (NYC)
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Posted at the request of CLAIR New York:
WE ARE HERE – Little voice and art 311 JAPAN is an exhibition of messages from Japanese children of areas affected by the disaster as well as photos of the area. The exhibition is being held at the AIGA Gallery in New York on 22nd St and 5th Avenue in Manhattan from today through May 20. They are also collecting messages from visitors to those children.
WIT Life #167: Japan and War as Seen Through the Lens of Film
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Recently I had the chance to see two films from 2010 that examine the issue of Japan and war. One was Anpo: Art x War which was screened at Columbia University last week, and the other is Caterpillar currently being shown at the IFC Center through this Thursday. The former is a documentary directed and produced by Linda Hoaglund, and the latter is a film made by the director Koji Wakamatsu of United Red Army fame (shown at Japan Society a few years ago and coming to IFC later this month).
Anpo uses a mixture of paintings, photos, anime, films and music by Japanese artists to Read More
Event: Two Artists, Two Expressions
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Author Suzanne Kamata (Tokushima-ken, 1988-90) who also serves as the Publicity Assistant for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators in Tokyo, shared the following:
The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators presents
Two Artists Two Expressions
Colored Pencil Workshop with Katsuya Takahashi and Daniel Schallau
Time: Saturday, May 21, 2011, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Place: Tokyo Women’s Plaza, Audiovisual Room
5-53-67 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
(by the Children‘s Castle and United Nations University;
for a map see www.scbwi.jp/map.htm)
Fee: SCBWI members 1,000 yen; nonmembers 1,500 yen
RSVP: Please reserve by May 20 by sending an e-mail to info@scbwi.jp
This event will be in English and Japanese.
Please join us for an evening workshop led by two master colored pencil children’s book illustrators followed by Q&A.
Katsuya Takahashi will introduce and demonstrate the basic properties and techniques of colored pencils that give his illustrations a unique look and feel. In the second half of his workshop, everyone will have the chance to experiment with the techniques that Takahashi has shared. Please bring a set of twelve or more colored pencils, some paper and an eraser.
Daniel Schallau will focus on the techniques he uses to draw cool winter scenes. Have you ever wondered how to draw snow in night scenes? Just use white? Think again. Schallau’s secrets might surprise you. This part of the workshop will offer the opportunity, for those interested, to try out some of Schallau’s tips. Please bring a range of blue colored pencils and yellow, orange and red pencils. Paper and pencil sharpeners will be provided.
Katsuya Takahashi (http://homepage3.nifty.com/katz-t/) Born in Kyoto, colored pencil artist Katsuya Takahashi studied in the Faculty of Art at Kyoto Seika University. After graduation, he became a freelance illustrator, and his work has been widely recognized in newspapers, books, magazines, and commercials. “Hyper burnishing” is how he describes his colored pencil technique. The rich hues and luminous glow of his illustrations are the result of deep layers of colors. Now a resident of Tokyo, he has held exhibitions every year since 1998. Takahashi works both in Tokyo and the Kansai area and is the author/ illustrator of the picture book, Hora utaga kikoeruyo (Listen, I Hear a Song; Builder Buch).
Daniel Schallau (www.danielschallau.com) After working for various architecture firms in the U.S., Daniel Schallau traveled to Tokyo where he now works as an English teacher and an author/illustrator. People often find it difficult to believe his drawings are actually created with colored pencils, insisting instead that they must be done with a computer. His picture book Come Back Soon (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) was published in 2009. Schallau specializes in intricately drawn worlds inhabited by elephants, penguins, whales, bears, snowmen, rabbits and more.
JapanGanbare: Messages of encouragement and support through manga art!
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A thoughtful approach to supporting Japan through original and creative images by manga fans:
Send a message of encouragement and support through your own manga art!
漫画を使って日本を応援しましょう！
WIT Life #157: Bye Bye Kitty!!!
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Last week I had the opportunity to attend the opening for the Japan Society’s newest exhibit, Bye Bye Kitty!!! The title refers to opposition towards the domination of Japan’s kawaii-ness, the idea of cuteness that has become Japan’s major export as represented by Hello Kitty. It features 16 artists, many of them quite young and not household names, and their interpretation of this concept. I was particularly drawn in by the intricacy of the works of 38-year old Manabu Ikeda, whose pen and ink masterpieces were incredibly detailed and required several minutes of close examination to take in all of their elements.
Equally interesting was the large-scale Read More
