dragon and clouds

Source: Japan Times

Source: Kiritz

First I thought there is a mistake in the title, but no, it is the Dragon and Clouds painting by Soga Shohaku. Not waves, but clouds. Interesting combination. Soga Shohaku created the painting at his 34th year. Now at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Dragon and Clouds
Un ryû zu
雲龍図
Japanese, Edo period, 1763
Soga Shôhaku, Japanese, 1730–1781
Dimensions
165.6 x 135 cm (65 3/16 x 53 1/8 in.) each panel after remounted as fusuma
Medium or techniques
Fusuma; ink on paper

gutai: splendid playground

Source: A/N Blog

Source: Guggenheim

Gutai: Splendid Playground

“Don’t imitate others!” and “Engage in the newness!” are just two of the signature slogans of the Gutai Art Association, founded in July 1954 by Jiro Yoshihara. The Gutai—which translates to “concreteness”—artists dared to breakthrough the boundaries presented by traditional Japanese art. As their name suggests, the artists directly engaged with concrete materials (such as remote-control toys, sand, light bulbs, and paper screens) to create a new, never before seen, kind of art. The creative genius of these avant-garde artists manifested itself in the form of various mediums including, but not limited to, painting, installation and performance art, experimental film, and environmental art. Gutai: Splendid Playground explores the works of these artists, created over a span of two-decades, and features an enormous installation by Motonaga Sadamasa composed of a series of plastic tubes filled with colored water. The structure, created specifically for the Guggenheim’s rotunda, invites visitors to look up and use these “brush strokes” to create their own individual composition.

Text Source: A/N Blog

Jikken Kōbō - experimental workshop

Jikken Kōbō - experimental workshop. Source: Artforum

Jikken Kōbō  Ballet Mirai no Eve (Eve Future Ballet), 1955, performance documentation. Source: Frieze

Jikken Kōbō and Takechi Tetsuji, Pierrot Lunaire (tsuki ni tsukareta piero), 1955, stage performance, Sankei International Conference Hall, Tokyo, December 5, 1955 (photograph © Ōtsuji Kiyoji). Source: Artjournal

Jikken Kōbō  (Experimental Workshop) was founded in Tokyo in 1951, against the backdrop of a country traumatized by Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and suffering from postwar austerity measures. This determinedly interdisciplinary group of 14 artists, musicians, choreographers and poets orientated themselves towards the pre-war European and American avant-gardes. Its members, many of whom were self-taught, worked individually or in groups, and their guiding interests included the piano work of John Cage, Martha Graham’s choreography, and the sculpture of Alexander Calder and Isamu Noguchi. Active for about seven years, they operated mostly outside of museum spaces and distanced themselves from the academic discourses around musique concrète and electro-acoustic composition. One of Jikken Kobo’s co-founders, Katsuhiro Yamaguchi, likened the workshop to ‘Bauhaus without a building’. [Excerpt text from Frieze Magazine]

more info: Bétonsalon 

initially spotted: Artforum

sayonara

photo via  Japanese Geta // to read more on Geta at Wikipedia

 

γράφει ο Γιώργος Δαμιανός:

Σαγιονάρα στα γιαπωνέζικα σημαίνει “αντίο”. Αυτός ο γιαπωνέζικος χαιρετισμός θα γίνει γνωστός στη Δύση, μετά το β’ παγκόσμιο πόλεμο, όταν ο Αμερικανός συγγραφέας James Albert Michener (1907; – 1997) έγραψε το μυθιστόρημα “sayonara”. Η λέξη, όμως, θα φτάσει στα λαϊκά στρώματα το 1957, όταν ο σκηνοθέτης Joshua Logan θα μεταφέρει το μυθιστόρημα του Michener στη μεγάλη οθόνη και θα σημειώσει πολύ μεγάλη επιτυχία για τα δεδομένα της εποχής του. Πρόκειται για μία ρομαντική αμερικάνικη ταινία με τον Μάρλον Μπράντο, στο ρόλο ενός Αμερικανού πιλότου, που ερωτεύεται μία γιαπωνέζα (την Ουμέκι Μιγιόσι). Κατά το σενάριο ο Μπράντο θα εγκαταλείψει την αγαπημένη του, εξ ου και ο “δακρύβρεχτος” τίτλος “σαγιονάρα” (: αντίο).

Καλά όλα αυτά, αλλά τι σχέση έχει ο χαιρετισμός, το μυθιστόρημα και η ταινία με τα τα υποδήματα/ παντόφλες*; Κατά σύμπτωση οι γιαπωνέζες ηθοποιοί της ταινίας φοράνε τα παραδοσιακά τους υποδήματα που μοιάζουν με τις παντόφλες (αργότερα, κυρίως εμεις, οι Έλληνες, θα ονομάσουμε “σαγιονάρα” ) και από τότε θα σημειώσουν μεγάλη εμπορική επιτυχία στη Δύση. Έπρεπε, βέβαια, να δώσουν και ένα όνομα σε αυτά τα υποδήματα και τι το πιο εύκολο από τον τίτλο της ίδιας της ταινίας : Sayonara. Φαίνεται πάντως ότι η λέξη παρέμεινε, κυρίως, στην Ελλάδα, αφού οι αγγλόφωνοι τα ονομάζουν: flip-flops, γαλλ.: Tong, ιταλ: infradito.

Για την Ιστορία της ταινίας, η Μιγιόσι θα γίνει η πρώτη Ασιάτισσα που θα πάρει το βραβείο Όσκαρ. το υπόλοιπο Cast: Marlon Brando (Lloyd ‘Ace’ Gruver), Patricia Owens (Eileen Webster), Red Buttons (Joe Kelly), Miiko Taka (Hana-ogi), Ricardo Montalban (Nakamura)

 

* Η παντόφλα, πιθανόν, ετυμολογείται από το πάντα + φελλός (: εξ ολοκλήρου από φελλό)

 

[via ΔΙΣΤΟΜΟ]

Bubble

SANAA's installation Bubble (2013) in the Calligraphy Square, Sharjah Biennial 11. Image courtesy of Hoor Al-Qasimi.

[via IBRAAZ]

If interested in seeing how the next generation of SANAA is working with circles, read my article at SHIFTboston, Playing with Circles, Curves, and SO-IL, December 2011 [link]

B-Z goes to Japan!

photo found here

del.icio.us

if you like ice-cream and if you like mochi*, then you love mochi ice-cream::


it is a 2 layers confection::
ice-cream for core and mochi* for the envelope.
it comes in various flavors: green tea [best], bean [second best], vanilla, chocolate and mango.
mochi ice-cream was first created by the brand "lotte":


by wikipedia: lotte originally had created wataboshi/ "cotton hat or capped with snow": in this first version the envelope was a marshmallow, and later it was replaced by mochi*.
another brand that claims to be the inventor is mikawaya from usa.
the size of mikawaya is at least 3 times bigger than lotte's, which means that you eat more ice cream than mochi. but i tend to buy mikawaya because they have a seperate green tea taste box and because it is easier to find. from lotte i dont like the chocolate version, but definitely the other tastes are much much better.
* mochi is a sticky rice cake, made by glutinus rice. it has a neutral taste but wonderful texture. there are various types of mochi. or some combinations with a filling for example bean paste [daifuku= great luck, my beloved] or with sesame paste [i think chinese].
i am not so sure it it is so easy to make mochi by yourself.
some people tried the mochi process though::




photos found here, here, here, here and here.

perfect for "nice days are coming" period ;]

sanaa:: toledo glass pavilion:: 1

night::

made in japan

my friend and talented young architect liberdade came back from japan and posted photos of my favorite moriyama house!
it is designed by ryue nishizawa!
the house is a cluster of buildings where every room is a seperate building!
the idea was also that part of the building could be rent when not in use;
an idea i explored also on a undergraduate house studio [not to this level though!!!]
i think now [according to liberdade] 6 owners live in moriyama house.
in the past i had found an entry on moriyama house in gravestmor with photos [scanned?] from domus 888.

photo taken from here.

check more on liberdade's tour from the building of the century [which century i wonder] sendai mediatheque!

machines

_toyo for rem:
[from page 100 of s,m,l,xl]

"purely in terms of design, i find myself comparing you to a mechanical baseball pitcing machine, the kind you see often on japanese batting practice ranges, where the ball is controlled perfectly without the emotional or spiritual agitation of a real pitcher. this leaves me with an impression of freshness that i have not often seen among architects in europe, or anywhere else for that matter..."


_characterized by the japanese press: "human batting machine"= ichiro suzuki: