Candy horrors, silly armies and a moving castle

[imomus]

To Scai the Bathhouse in Yanaka to see an exhibition of Yurie Nagashima's photos with the lovely title 'Candy Horror'. Then to Trees Are So Special in Daikanyama to see a little show of Boredom Eye Yamantaka's scrawly-cool artwork. Next down to the Mizuma Gallery to see the neo-Japanist, absurdist, incredibly detailed drawings of Akira Yamaguchi. A samurai chops a biker in half with a single sweep of his sword, a 'postmodern silly army' sallies forth under the banner of a yellow smiley face... there's so much to look at! Finally it's up to the Mori Art Museum at Roppongi Hills to see the utopian architecture show Archilab.



On view here are sundry inflatable pneumacosms, instant cities, giant skynooks, dirigible instant cities, desert clouds, living pods, mobile cabin hotels, films of billowing polythene accompanied by baroque bloopy monophonic synths, plug-in cities, sloping cities, spatial cities, megastructures, guest hut containers, paper log cities, cities on legs...

What better preparation could there be for a screening of the new Miyazaki film Howl's Moving Castle down at the foot of the tower? For here too wild architectural fantasia prevails. It's a cross between Heidi and War of the Worlds, set in a flower-box Frankfurt and populated by big-eyed manga wizards and blobby monsters. 19th century German cities are bombed by gigantic metal flying fish and castles are great big clanky machines on legs, clambering over Alps. For my money this is a better film than 'Spirited Away', more Japanese although it's set in some Swiss-Martian Europe of the Japanese imagination, more moving, more visual, painted on a bigger, stranger canvas... Terrific stuff, even - especially - if you're jet-lagged to hell and have no idea what's going on.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

dear momus, oh please share if you have any photos of Eye Yamantaka's work from the show!?

[(Anonymous)]

please say hi to yoyo from me

(odot writing)

one more request

[(Anonymous)]

let me echo the other anonymous:
dear momus, prince of japan, would you be so kind in sharing photos of the akira yamaguchi exibition, if you have any? th work looks amazing, but the photos are absurdly small.

(btw, I´m a reader from brasil and quite a regular one.I find your blog a solace of quiet thinking. usually I feel the exchange of ideas go in such a high level I feel awkard to comment, but I keep coming back. also, I share your fascination with japan. hope you enjoy your stay. um abraço do brasil.)
Odyr

[(Anonymous)]

Your Fuji camera seems to be displaying that striation effect again giving the first shot a kind of bamboo canvas texture or is it a the jet-lag ?

I am in involved in architectural art project myself; the Archilab show sounds intruiging although the Yamaguchi stuff sounds like more fun !

RichardG

Moving architecture

[fidgital.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a great blueprint for an evening! I'm flying to Tokyo this weekend, and I think I will follow your plans. I was already planning to go to ArchiLab and Howl's Moving Castle anyway.

Thanks!

-K.

Arhitecturaral Utopia

[instant-c.livejournal.com]

Nick, Please give us some photo's of the architecture show!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[chickensnack.livejournal.com]

I was just wondering about Howl's Moving Castle the other day. The last I'd heard of it was seeing a poster of it at the Ghibli museum in 2003. I am excited to see it.

Coincidentally, last night I dreamt I went to Toyko. I was on a reality TV show without my knowledge and was then chased by a bunch of hillbillies in a truck.

Good luck to you on your travels!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Hello o.lamm! Yes, I think Yoyo was as surprised to see me as I was to see her! I didn't know she still worked there.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Your wish is my command. Eye Yamantaka artwork (http://www.imomus.com/eyeshow.JPG).

[imomus.livejournal.com]

And here's a photo of Eye in his best 'cool paraplegic' pose (http://www.imomus.com/eyesolo.jpg), surrounded by more of the puzzle punk band sleeves. I often think Eye is the coolest man in Japan. He always looks good. Yoyo says he's surprisingly straightforward to deal with, not as 'artistic' as you might think. But not 'businesslike' at all.

Re: one more request

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I didn't take any in that gallery, Google may yield a few. You certainly need to see them big.

Re: Arhitecturaral Utopia

[imomus.livejournal.com]

That was very heavily policed, I couldn't. Such a great show, though! Very exciting. If only architecture were really like that!

Simple, really. First change architecture to make it outlandishly tech-organic and wildly experimental, then change humans to make them want that. Or is it the other way around?

[(Anonymous)]

thanks .man .

Re: Arhitecturaral Utopia

[(Anonymous)]

Mmmm... I was at this show early last week, and I came away thinking of it as show about architecture as utopia, rather than utopian architecture. Aside from a few nods to population driven 'cities for growth', it was all buildings built to leave humanity behind, and enter the Grand New Future.

-J

[autokrater.livejournal.com]

yeah i need to see that movie,though i will have to wait quite a while.
your outfit is so wonderful in that picture!
someday i shall definitely travel to japan..every time you speak of being there it inspires me!!!
there is no finacial way i can get there now..but hopefully in 3 years or more i shall be able to go there.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

I agree with you: Howl's Moving Castle manages to be insightful without preachiness, and maintains a charm and innocence that was lacking from both Spirited Away and Mononoke Hime.

[eliah.livejournal.com]

You don't know of any theatres in Tokyo that are currently showing that film with English subtitles, do you? My Japanese sucks, and I'm here for another week or so and would love to see it.

[sparkligbeatnic.livejournal.com]

There's a spread on the show in the current issue of Relax, which seems to be an improvement over the last couple of issues.

At times like these I wouldn't mind living (at least part time) in Tokyo!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Yes, I checked Relax and, having expected the worst, was quite pleasantly surprised. They seem to be back on track, after toying with a more populist approach.