12 June, 2005

Matthew Barney: Drawing Restraint

Matthew Barney, of American modern art, is going to hold a personal exhibition for the first time in Japan. The exhibition will open at Kanazawa 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art from 2 July to 25 August.

The museum will show all works from "Drawing Restraint", which consists of drawings, films and sculpture Matthew has created since 1980s, and also his latest work "Drawing Restraint 9".

"Drawing Restraint 9", inspired by Japanese culture - mainly whaling and tea ceremony and beautiful scenery in Japan, is a fairy tale that music and visual image weave.

The film also features Björk, who is a partner of Matthew himself. A soundtrack she produced for the film is to be released on 25 July.

» 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa | Drawing Restraint (Japanese)
» björk.com | Drawing Restraint 9

23 April, 2005

Extreme North

I went to Shinjuku today to see an exhibition of Norwegian product design. It's been long since Scandinavian design became widespread and recognised in Japan. But in many cases "Scandinavian design" would have meant to be Sweden, Denmark or Finland. Not Norway.

In fact, I heard before a phrase which describes the relationship among Scandinavian countries - "Sweden designs, Denmark produces and Norway transports". I don't know who said this and to what extent this is pertinent.

I read an interesting article in some magazine. The article explains why Norway lags behind other Scandinavian countries in design.

First of all, unlike other Scandinavian countries, Norway is blessed with the North Sea which provides natural resources and fishery resources. After Norway found these resources with potential in 1970s, the country started to focus on the North Sea. As a result, Norway has promoted the development of the resources rather than one of design. Meanwhile, in other Scandinavian countries, design has established its position. Therefore, these facts have created an image that Norway lags behind other Scandinavian countries in design. The article also mentions Norway's geography - Fjord coastline.

But the article clarifies the point that this is just an image. "Scandinavian design" originates from Scandinavian climate typified by long winter and aims at comfortable home life during long winter. Of course, there are some other factors like cultures that had effect on design. The article concludes that Norway - obviously one of Scandinavian countries - is no exception and has potentialities of design as other Scandinavian countries do.

Norway's design is booming now and seems not to be a "transporter" anymore.

Here are some links related to Norwegian design.
» Norway.com
» Norway Says (Norway design=Norway Says? - Design group)
» GUU - Norwegian Design (Norwegian design portal site)
» The Nordic Countries at Expo 2005 (Norway at the Aichi Expo 2005)

And here are links of the exhibition:
» Norsk Designråd | Extreme North (Norwegian)
» Living Design Centre Ozone | Northern Lights (Japanese)
» Living Design Centre Ozone | Extreme North (Japanese)