Posted November 28, 2015

The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) is based in Kiyosumi and opened in 1995. Within its imposing triangular frame structure, it hosts both permanent collections as well as massive spaces for temporary exhibitions.

It is currently displaying a retrospective on Yoko Ono, following her life and artistic output from the 1930 through to the present day; and Tokyo, looking at the cultural image of the city and how it may be viewed approaching the 2020 Olympics.

Posted November 7, 2015

One of the few remaining, and likely most famous, examples of the Japanese architectural movement known as Metabolism, the Nakagin Capsule Tower serves as a look at a future that was never pursued.

Built in 1972 and designed by Kisho Kurokawa, it comprises of 140 modular capsules that can be connected and combined into large spaces and units. Intended so that individual capsules could be upgraded, it eventuated that none were ever replaced and the building has slowly been falling into disrepair.

Despite it’s unique look and architectural significance, the building has been on borrowed time for the past decade — with the majority of remaining owners approving of demolition due to the current condition of the building.

Posted August 23, 2015

After moving in to our new apartment, we decided that rather than spread our furniture budget over a lot of kind-of-ok pieces, we were better off investing in fewer but better pieces that wouldn’t require replacing in 5–10 years time. The two items we decided to focus on was a desk that I had previously designed, followed by a dining table. After his build of our desk, we commissioned local furniture designer Takeshi Iue to design and build our new table.

We wanted the table to act as much as a sculptural element in the room as it is a practical piece of furniture. Takeshi’s folded forms from American Walnut create some fantastic angles that pick up light and shadow and its asymmetric legs play off the relatively calm top beautifully. The craftsmanship and detail of the joins are particularly beautiful and it makes the top and the waterfall end feel like a single folded piece of wood.

Posted May 19, 2015

It’s hard to believe our little boy is 1 today.
Happy Birthday Naoto.

Posted March 17, 2015

Forgoing a formalised festival bar this year, the Adelaide Festival instead brought Blinc — an outdoor multimedia art gallery set on and around the Torrens Lake and Elder Park.

Along with various laser projections and interactive sound toys, a highlight was Junction by HC Gilje, a set of pulsing lights set on the underside of the King William St bridge. But most interesting were the projections on the Festival Theatre and the rear of Parliament House by a variety of artists including Hartung and Trenz, Laszlo Zsolt Bordos, and Ryoichi Kurokawa.