Ambitious Tokyo plants raise their game

[imomus]

We began Saturday back at the No Man's Land show at the French Embassy, because Hisae hadn't seen it, and a whole new wing of student work had opened up since I saw the show on Thursday.

Then we walked in sunshine over the Hiroo hill to gm ten gallery at Azabu Juban, where Chiako Kudo and Mao Yamazaki were waiting to talk us through an event we're planning to hold there on December 22nd. This is a new gallery (it only opened in October) related to the operations of Osaka designers Graf, known for their furniture and playful constructions for Yoshitomo Nara shows worldwide. Mao runs the music side (his label, Akichi Records, releases Oorutaichi) and Chiako the art side.



I've been talking with friends about where to play a casual free live show while I'm in Tokyo, and the consensus has been that gm ten is the ideal spot. On December 20th their new art show -- featuring drawings by manga veteran Eico Hanamura -- will open, and on December 22nd at 20.30 I'll play a 45-minute Momus set in the gallery, hopefully joined by a special guest or two.



There's a map of gm ten's location -- right next to Azabu Juban subway station -- here and, as I said, the show is free.



After the meeting with Chiako and Mao, Hisae and I headed (past the impressive Christmas... well, digits at Roppongi Hills) down to Ura-Harajuku to catch a panel talk at Vacant (catered vege-stylee by Yoyo!) featuring photographers Masafumi Sanai (Mr A Girl Like You himself) and Ume Kayo (her again!).

I had a wee thrill on the way to Vacant when I popped into Tokyo Bopper. Seeing charisma shop assistant Yama-Sama in the flesh for the first time really felt like seeing a pop star, and I had to hold back a manly squeal of excitement as I made a quick circle of the store and left (we were late).



After the talk at Vacant I met TABbers Cameron and Darryl again, then German photographer Sebastian Mayer and Vicente Gutierrez, who writes for Lucas Badtke Berkow's magazines Paper Sky (recently restyled) and Plants Plus, a sort of web extension of the excellent-but-defunct Planted magazine. Here are Lucas and Ito Seiko talking about their plans for the plants site:

[Error: unknown template video]

I must say, I like the business goal of "widening the horizons of plants" by leveraging the green life forms' brand into previously-untried media, like a plants TV network and a plants music festival. Lucas thinks big; plants, it's time to raise your game!

Comments

Re: come again

[(Anonymous)]

My Joe Strummer reference wasn't particularly serious, the man was a well meaning arse, but then a wry smile isn't easily identifiable online. Perhaps I should have added one of those ;-) things just to make it clear for the overly earnest?

I rather like momus being what he is. I don't think it is possible to make any wider point about the type of person who produces "politically meaningful, crafted work exploring our lives and times". Some might wear daft trousers, some might not. If you think that a total aversion to personal exposure in this media saturated world is a pre-requisite of producing things or ideas of value then I think you're going to have a frustrating time of it.

One of the huge problems with the comments on this blog is the hysterical reaction it gets to the most innocuous comment. So momus wears a ridiculous outfit ... the man is the antichrist (Simon Cowell). A report on a trip to Tokyo becomes momus attempting to emulate the worst of the celebrity culture rags (and, given the evidence that you believe this blog shares the values of "Hello!" magazine, I presume that your trips to the local newsagent to buy the latest on Britney's new love and Posh's new frock are frequent).

A sense of proportion anyone?

Personally I think momus would look ridiculous trying not to be momus. His character is an artful and entertaining construct. I'd like him to continue doing things for as long as he wants in the way that he wants to. You want him to be what you want. I say be that yourself and leave the poor sod alone.