Published by art zine empire Nieves in 2006, Takashi Homma’s Tokyo and My Daughter is a brief but beautiful collection of intimate photographs. The slim volume combines Homma’s two favorite subjects, with a selection of gorgeous cityscapes intertwined with comical and honest impressions of the artist’s young daughter.
Homma is renowned for his subdued Tokyo landscapes, but his portraits of Japanese youth are possibly even more affecting. The way he captures contemporary childhood is stunningly candid, instilling in the viewer a strong nostalgia for endless wonder– underlined by a sense of deep disquiet.
Born in Japan and raised in Brazil, Chie Fueki is an artistic Vitamix of global influences. Working in mixed media, Fueki’s works are immaculately crafted and devilishly detailed (the above right image is a detail of the painting at left. Would you have guessed?)
Fueki also strays from the standard vocabulary of subjects and influences. To wit, hers include team sports, numbers, textiles, lacquerware and kimonos. Sometimes all in the same piece! Happily, the artist also dotes as much on her titles as on the paintings, giving them names like Significant Moment and Every Corner Runs Two Directions for added interpretive oomph. Like her work or hate it, you have to admit there’s nothing quite like it out there.
If you happen to be in Tokyo today, you’re in luck! Internationally rad fashion boutique Opening Ceremony is hosting a Q&A and signing with Spike at 7:00pm (doors open at 6:00). Stop by the Shibuya-based store and say hello! Here are the details from the Opening Ceremony blog:
Come to POTLUCK at Opening Ceremony Tokyo for our Q and A with Spike Jonze! All week long we’ll be showing Spike’s films ranging from legendary skate videos, music videos and movies. Stop in to check out all of the WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE merchandise we’ve created, ranging from faux furs, tee’s, books and shoes, to Pamela Love’s jewelry collection, and more. The best part about it is that you can get all that stuff signed by Spike on December 16th at 7pm (or 19:00)!
Doors open at 6pm so make sure to secure your spot!!!!! Tokyo here we come!!! Please rsvp to email hidden; JavaScript is required.
Opening Ceremony Tokyo
Shibuya Seibu Movida
21-1, Udawaga-Cho, Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo
Have you ever been so moved by a band, you shaved off your own eyebrows? The devoted early adopters of Yura Yura Teikoku’s guitar-dueling psychedelia did just that, seduced by singer Sakamoto Shintaro’s eviscerated eyebrows– a grooming choice only accentuated by his long, flowing hair parted down the middle, like a traditional Japanese ghost. As Yura Yura Teikoku rose from obscurity in those irreverent days of yore to a level of popularity unprecedented for a band in the Japanese psych rock scene, they never compromised their innovative style.
These days their sound has evolved towards seductively cool introspective pop jams that seem to inspire the shuffling steps of an aloof yet precise back alley hustler. Yura Yura Teikoku has recently shared the stage with Yo La Tengo and Animal Collective. Their latest album, Hollow Me was released state-side by DFA, and it lays claim to more than a couple fantastic tunes. Several songs from the album were implemented to great effect in Sion Sono’s 4-hour cinematic opus, Love Exposure. Check out the epic title track:
Trying to describe artist/musician Keiji Haino is like trying to hear a dog whistle. It doesn’t work. Our equipment isn’t prepared to handle such a sensation. In lieu of description, check out the video above and the interview (conducted by Alan Cummings) here, plus the excerpt below.
Alan Cummings : I’d like to ask you a bit about your childhood first. What were you like as a child?
Keiji Haino : I was definitely different from everyone else. Looking back now it sort of seems to have been inevitable, but I was different from everyone else. My first memories are from around the time I went to kindergarten. It seems very symbolic now, but I remember that when all the other kids were playing in the sand pit, I’d be playing with building bricks. And when they were all playing with the building bricks, I’d be in the sand pit.
Did you know this is just a normal vending machine in Japan? They’re that fancy, now.
Music video for the Unitxt song “U_08-1,” directed by scientific sculptor Carsten Nicolai. Also, the numbers that comprise the lyrics have some kind of connection to the Golden Ratio. Any mathemagicians out there care to explain?
In honor of Hayao Miyazaki’s latest animated epic, Ponyo, finally getting a release in the United States (See, rest of the world? Sometimes we have to wait for movies too!) , let’s revisit one of Miyazaki’s most enduring classics: My Neighbor Totoro. Telling the simple yet peculiar tale of two young girls who move to the country and meet an adorably fuzzy beast who lives in a nearby camphor tree, Miyazaki’s magic is everywhere in Totoro as he conjures nostalgia for childhood fantasy in vivid detail:
Haruki Murakami is perhaps the most well-known Japanese author in the West, revered for novels like Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore, and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. His informal, subdued musings about life in an alienating globalized society are accented by a unique flair for magical realism– expertly weaving together ruminations on pop songs and healthy living with understated odes to human loneliness and casual asides about telepathic cats, supernaturally irresistible earlobes, and impossibly insidious corporate conspiracies.
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is a beautiful, but less popular novel of Murakami’s– perhaps because it amplifies the dualistic nature of his work, taking his pension for juxtaposing fantasy and reality to its logical extreme. Telling two separate but linked stories through alternating chapters, the author switches between the mundane, scientific world of data processing and a chimerical universe with a surplus of unicorns. While the jarring contrast can be off-putting for those unfamiliar with Murakami’s style, Hard-Boiled Wonderland just takes a little patience to reveal a complex, grown-up version of themes familiar from childhood fables. Forging a vivid fantasy on a foundation of the real world’s emotional complexity, Murakami skilfully addresses the significance of dreams and abstraction in our banal, everyday lives under late capitalism.
Growing Up is a photo blog showcasing the work of two brilliant young photographers: Patrick Tsai and Coley Brown. After meeting in Tokyo and spending two months taking pictures of the city together, they decided to continue their creative alliance in blog form, despite Brown’s return to the U.S. Both artists excel at capturing startlingly candid shots of strangers and friends alike, freezing ephemeral emotions at the height of their intensity. Tsai and Brown’s work weaves together seamlessly, highlighting uncanny tragicomic truths beneath quotidian street scenes with the deft skill (and voyeuristic delight) of wildlife documentarians.
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