Dimensions
222 x 288 x 39mm
Tokyo Art & Design is a lavish, whip-smart insider's guide to the last few years of cultural production in one of the world's great centers of creativity.
Virtually all under forty, the divergent personalities profiled in the book have collectively engineered entirely new ways of seeing, expanding their influence well beyond Japan and into the arts of Asia, Western Europe and North America.
The book is organised around the physical city, and the role of the megalopolis itself as both the site and inspiration for an unprecedented explosion in the visual arts. The new work of world-renowned talents like Takashi Murakami, SANAA, Rei Kawakubo and Hayao Miyazaki complement the current work of rising stars like Chiho Aoshima, Shuwa Tei, Nigo, Chinatsu Ban, Gokita Tomoo, Junya Watanabe, Naoki Takizawa, Tsumori Chisato, United Bamboo, Akira Yamaguchi, Hikaru Koreeda, Katsuhiro Otomo, Masamichi Katayama, Shunji Iwai, Makoto Yokomizo, Kumiko Inui, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and a host of others.
Architectural commissions erected within the environs of Tokyo are documented, including the work of Osaka-based architects like Tadao Ando and Waro Kishii. The creation of the cities is as much a local as it is an international endeavor, and the editors feel that the inclusion of regional voices is important in this regard.
Introductory essays by leading Japan, American and European contributing editors and leading observers of the Tokyo cultural scene will provide context. Of these, the most salient is the present generational transition, and the desire of young Japanese creatives to move beyond the current fixation in the West for Otaku culture and into aspects of Japanese creativity that remain obscure to most Western audiences.
Essays by prominent Japanese and Western commentators lend critical heft to this cultural atlas, providing the necessary context to both seasoned observers and the uninitiated.
