Paper Sushi Chef

I came across this creative man and his little sushi store at Design Festa 2009 last month. Paper craft kappa maki by Hiroshi Namiki and some wonderful sushi plushies. He had a whole range of things in his little shop and he was so busy creating more I didn’t get a chance to talk to him about his work. It’s a shame, but at least I got some snaps to share with you. Don’t forget to check out his site and the great videos he has there. Enjoy!

Action Murals

I just wanted to show you these two fantastic murals I found at Tokyo Design Festa 2009 last month. I was too late to see them in action but quite a few of these huge paintings were done by teams or solo artists around the art and design festival in Tokyo’s Odaiba district. I wouldn’t mind having these artists do some public decoration in the dreary Ikebukuro pedestrian tunnels!

Housing Estate N

At Tokyo Design Festa I came across this wonderfully excentric artist and her work, a miniature abandoned housing estate done entirely in corrugated cardboard stock. I must apologize for the terrible photos, but the abandoned building drew quite a crowd in a very dark room and I didn’t feel I had the right to linger while adjusting my camera settings too much.

The artist tells the story of a continually evolving but seemingly abandoned housing estate project called 第N無人居住区, or roughly in English: Abandoned Housing Estate Number N. Apparently she has been working continually on this project since 2001 and the amount of details is pretty amazing. Some rooms are lit and furnished whilst others are dark and empty. Fans provide a functioning ventilation system throughout the estate and while it might seem abandoned there’s actually a few spirits haunting empty stairwells and corridors.

I have a massive soft spot for eccentric world builders like this artist and can totally see how one could become obsessed with building and extending a virtual city like this. In fact, at least three of my previous posts have been about this theme: A Paper Craft Castle On the Ocean, A Cityscape of Polysthyrene – Satomi Suzuki and The Coolest Pop Out Cards.

At her site you can find much better photos, a virtual house and much more information about this art project. Naturally, it’s all in Japanese. She also runs a blog and has published a CD with music inspired by this amazing paper building.

The Art of Yumi Kato

At Design Festa there was a lot handy makers creating small little things and not at all as much art as I wanted to see. But the wonderful paintings of young Ms. Kato (a third year student at Tama Art University). She works in an interesting western style with traditional Japanese art materials. We chatted a bit about her art and her customers, and it turns out that while her post card pictures were flying off the shelves it is much harder in Tokyo to sell actual art. People tend not to have any space to hang it! In Tokyo where space is at a premium, nothing can be more honoring for an artist than have their work on someone’s walls! We also talked about her name, which in Japanese is written 加藤ユ美. I have never seen such a name but she confessed that the ユ character is to make her a bit more anonymous. I thought it was a fantastic touch. She has a nice website with more work and proper close ups. Enjoy!