Welcome to section-mw

ABOUT
WORK
WRITING
LINKS
CONTACT

NEWS: Recent and Upcoming

Reviewed: Pecha Kucha Night, A Celebration and Designing Design

Pecha Kucha Night, A Celebration
Within the past two years Pecha Kucha Night (PKN), founded in Tokyo in 2003 by KleinDytham architecture, has achieved a parabolic trajectory in spreading to over one hundred cities worldwide, yet maintaining its humble, if not ambitious beginnings and underground coolness. Multiple voices, including its founders, organizers, critics, and presenters, recount PKN’s grass roots beginning, purpose, and dissemination through the scrapbook-oral history-memoir of Pecha Kucha Night, A Celebration.

Designing Design
The second thing one notices about this monograph, after its white varnish cover and disproportionately small black title is the book’s text. There’s a lot of it. This is not your ordinary vanity publication presenting glossy photos of every object the designer conceived since university — though there are plenty of extremely innovative, interesting and inspiring products and research represented. Designing Design records cerebral tactility and a philosophy of designing as process rather than focusing solely on products.

Continue reading either of these reviews --> Tokyo Art Beat

Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters)

Recently installed on the second floor atrium is Pipilotti Rist's most recent projection environment, Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters). The multimedia installation in Rist fashion creatively and critically comments on humanity's natural, if not animalistic, aspects, often sublimated in modern society. Ms. Rist's monumental site-specific installation immerses the twenty-five-foot-high atrium with colorful moving images and abstarct sounds reminiscent of whale songs, deep and drawn out. Visitors are free to move through the space, lounge on the floor or on a sculptural seating island designed by Rist. It was nice to see the public thoroughly giving themselves into the space and work.

New York magazine named this installation their #3 best art exhibition of 2008.

On view at Museum of Modern Art, New York City November 19, 2008–February 2, 2009. For more information see --> MoMA's website

For an interview I conducted with her for her solo exhibition at the Hara Museu in Tokyo see --> Tokyo Art Beat

New Home for Tomorrow

Late last month Myth of Tomorrow was unveiled in Tokyo's Shibuya Station. The 30-meter wide mural by the late Taro Okamoto (1911-1996) depicts the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The oil painting had been missing for a quarter-century until it was found in a warehouse in 2003. After restoration and a showing at Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo it was installed in this highly public forum, Shibuya Station being one of the most trafficed spaces in the world. Okamoto is widely-known for his contribution to Expo '70 - Tower of the Sun.

For more background on the project see David Willoughby's article at --> Tokyo Art Beat

Going for High Ground - CLOSED

Hai Zhang, who has been documenting Chinese culture, traditions and transformation with his ever-present Canon, will exhibit recent photographs in the group exhibition "Meditations in Contemporary Chinese Landscape" at Queens College Godwin-Ternbach Museum. The show runs from October 15 - December 6. Eleven other artist will present works in a range of media. The opening reception is October 15 6:30-7:30 with a dance performance preceding at 6 PM.

more at Queens College

more at Hai's website

Hugo Boss Prize 2008 winner announced

Emily Jacir (Palestine) won the coveted Hugo Boss prize this year. A solo exhibition featuring
the artist’s work will be on view at the Guggenheim Museum from February 06
through April 15, 2009.

The award is conferred upon artists whose work represents a significant development in contemporary art, and sets no restrictions in terms of age, gender, race, nationality, or media. The nominations include young, emerging artists as well as established individuals whose public recognition may be long overdue. The biennial prize of U.S. $100,000 is administered by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

The finalists included:

• Christoph Büchel (Switzerland),
• Patty Chang (U.S.A.),
• Sam Durant (U.S.A.),
• Joachim Koester (Denmark),
• and Roman Signer (Switzerland).

The jurors were:

• Russell Ferguson, Chair, Department of Art, UCLA, Los Angeles, California;
• Maria Lind, Director of the Graduate Program, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York;
• Sandhini Poddar, Assistant Curator of Asian Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum;
• Nancy Spector, Chief Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum;
• Marc-Olivier Wahler, Director, Palais de Tokyo, Paris.

For more information: www.hugobossprize.com

Art Space Tokyo

This handy book edited by Ashley Rawlings and published by Chin Music Press is an indespensible guide to understanding Tokyo's contemporary art institutions and issues. With over 270 pages, 20 interviews with key figures in the Tokyo art world and 8 essays by art specialists, Art Space Tokyo offers a thorough exploration of the Tokyo art world and the issues revolving around these spaces.

This guide directed me to some delicious hand-made soba in the Yanaka district while visiting SCAI the Bathouse. It has great interviews with Yoshio Futagawa of GA Gallery and with Toshio Hara and Yoko Uchida of the Hara Museum. And it is wonderfully designed.
Currently available through Chin Music Press and Amazon.

Read an interview with Ashley and Craig at: Ping Mag

For more information see www.artspacetokyo.com and www.chinmusicpress.com