Tokujin Yoshioka is a Japanese designer and artist who has worked under Shiro Kuramata and Issey Miyake and established his ow studio, Tokujin Yoshioka Design in 2000. He created the installation called The Snow as part of the exhibition Sensing Nature at the Tokyo Mori Art museum last year. This spatial design made from artificial materials gives the viewer the sensation of experiencing light, snow, storms and other phenomena. Tokujin Yoshioka explores the potential future of design and how it will incorporate natural principles, effects and by integrating natural science technologies. His installation is similar to looking at or walking through a snowstorm. It is an expanded version of the original ‘snow’ which was exhibited in 1997.
Colors of Shadow is the first conceptual photo series which artist Hiroshi Sugimoto photographed in color and it shows his continuous interrogation of photography’s intrinsic nature; of light entering into a darkened or “dimmed chamber”, however, the light source remains out of view. The work is minimalist in nature. The photographic field is emptied of any superfluous detail, allowing stillness for meditation. Colors of Shadow seems also to mirror the white cube, the gallery space, in its perpetual rhythm to lay bare its white walls to receive the work of art. Here the works reflect its surroundings; the detail is focused on what the viewer’s eye does not generally pay attention to. Brought into focus are the corners of the space, its ceiling and walls with different hues of whites due to the slightest alteration in lighting, and their cast shadows.
Subtle play of light and shadow as well as spatial composition are central in this work by artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. He explains it as following:
”I’ve learned many things from using my hands. While I’m still not sure about the nature of light—whether it’s waves or particles—I’ve learned something about shadows. Trying to devise a way of observing shadows, this project escalated into a major undertaking, requiring an entire hilltop penthouse in a Tokyo apartment. When surfaces receive light, the light effects vary according to the angle of exposure. Selecting three distinct angles—90°, 55°, and 35°—I had the walls surfaced using traditional Japanese shikkui (plaster finishing), which absorbs and reflects light most evenly. In the morning light, the shadows play freely over the surfaces, now appearing, now vanishing. On rainy days, they take on a deeper, more evocative cast. I’ve only just begun my observations, but already I’ve discovered a sublime variety in shadow hues.”
Photos from top to bottom: Colors of shadow c1020 Colors of shadow c1031 Colors of shadow c1028 Colors of shadow c1023 Colors of shadow c1019
Saburo Teshigawara began his creative career in 1981 in Tokyo, Japan where he had studied plastic arts and classic ballet. In 1985, he formed Karas with Kei Miyata.
Saburo Teshigawara received increasing international attention in the visual arts field, with art exhibitions, films / videos as well as designing scenography, lighting and costume for all his performances. His sculptural sensibilities and powerful sense of composition and space fuse with his decisive dance movements and form the unique Saburo Teshigawara world.
The above video shows a fragment of Marieke Schroeder’s 45 minute dance documentary titled Still Move. It features a portrait of Saburo Teshigawara and provides an insight into his philosophy of dance and life. It shows also fragments of Saburo Teshigawara’s dance piece Absolute Zero. This piece explores the condition of total stillness. Teshigawara and his partner Kei Miyata develop an almost unnoticeable inner speed and yet everything flows to the minimalist music of Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann.
Mizu Hanabi is the title of a stunning video by Japanese artist Tetsuka Niiyama. for this work he was inspired by and idea of “What would it be like if a water drop explodes like fireworks?”. The result: Water drops in a microgravity space bursts sequentially,imitating the Japanese seasonal tradition, fireworks.
Video directed and animated by Tetsuka Niiyama | Sound Design by Yoshio Matsumoto | Production by Taiyo Kikaku. co. ltd.
