Thursday, September 11, 2008

kogane-cho redevelopment


yesterday was a BUSY day. i worked the booth at rooms all day, and then we were off to yokohama for an event related to the trienalle:

the opening of the kogane-cho redevelopment dedication. koganecho is an area long plagued with crime and prostitution and the city of yokohama has put up the money to make the area into artist studios, gallery spaces and fashion shops. the new buildings fit snugly under the train tracks of the keikyu line. nooka zub 38s are available in the GOLD shop [kogane = gold] next to one of the cute cafés scattered through the area.

i really enjoyed the paper fruits project by a thai artist wit pimkanchanapong. you buy the flat sheet and if you cut it out and make it into the 3-D fruit, he will exchange it for a real fruit and then resell the paper one as a souvenir at a higher price than the flat one. it's really a brilliant way to mix community, recycling and real commerce concepts into one experience. his site here.

also, the installation by naro tamiya in the issey miyake shop is wonderful! lots of information on everything is here.

i then met fellow designers and friends from osaka at an impossibly small bar in shibuya, but i'll make a separate entry for that.

also pictured in this entry is the nooka limited edition for the yokohama trienalle which will be available at the art fair itself as well as spiral yokohama and online store [also on the nooka.jp site and online store]. it has a beautiful dark gold face and green body. limited edition of 500 exclusive to japan!