Design Festa

Tokyo Big Site is an inverted pyramid on four elephant legs made out of glass and metal bars. To get there you can walk, but it is very far, so instead use the monorail which is fun because it has no driver and if you sit in the front seat you can pretend to be the driver, and have a really great view of the sights in and around Tokyo Bay. The water in Tokyo bay looks like a mixture of shit and coffee, but there's a beach visible and it appears to have a swimming area roped off. That makes people think it's safe to swim, because it's generally someone of authority who adds restrictions to things, and we trust people of authority because they get jobs based on age. Crossing this body, on the way to Odaiba is the rainbow bridge, massive and quite clean, though not nearly as colourful as the ferris wheel rolling in the distance. Over and around, driving (conducting) your very own monorail, and you'll arrive at the place: Tokyo Big Site; today: Design Festa.

This event is likely the best event in the world. Though that said, last year the bands were upstairs, backdropped by the bay and the evening sky--this year they were somewhere else and I missed them all. But the art was once again great; well, it’s not *all great, but the sheer volume of work demands that there be quality; though, that makes it sound like there’s a big gap and a lot of detritus, which isn’t true. I’d say I linger long enough to say I’m interested at 3 of five booths. But lingering and ingnoring aside, Speaks and I managed to take in pretty much every booth. Here are a few things that I particularly enjoyed or something!

In the main hall, just left of the entrance, I was pleased to see that Takayanagi Akira was present, and in the same place again with his prints.



His small drawings and paintings are some of my favourite works at the show; his lines are so free and incomplete, and his subject, sometimes dense yet often sparse, never fails for my eye. He is having an exhibit at Epaneto near Shinjuku next month. I don't know what the place is, but go.

It was only for a few moments that I was able to admire his work, as these two crazies took to the stage quite early this year.



Called Hanakengo, they birthed of grey plastic, danced screaming and strange, pulled red tubes from their white fuzzy zippered muffs, and stuck one end in my ear. Maybe she breathed in my soul, maybe sucked out my brain, whatever, they took us on a journey that no one understood, and will not likely forget. I think their costumes are seed. 9/10.

Later, I came across this fellow. He looks vaguely like a panda; reminds me of someone who just doesn’t give a shit, and he’ll sell you a t-shirt about it.



Then I encountered these gems. I wish the photo was better, but the gist of it is black marker on pages of porn, accompanied by the caption, “eroticism died and laughter was born”. haha.



And finally, some more great drawings.




Something else notable was the abundance of gothic doll artists. There were corpse dolls, dead dolls, dressed dolls, nude dolls, dolls fucking, dolls at a wedding, dismembered and disembowled dolls jutting a landscape of crystal shards. All kinds of dolls, I guess, and writing about it makes me wonder why I didn’t get a picture. I tried to imagine the life of a gothic doll enthusiast, living in a dark yet romantic home with a lot of wood objects, upon which the dolls live with their limp doll arms sagging out of cabinet doors ajar, and their doll eyes staring blankly unblinking eternally from everywhere. The doll lover wearing a big hat, standing in the middle of the silence, wishing so badly for the dolls to be real, to have touch be reciprocated, to love the dolls, to hear their little voices, to hear them beg for life. Or maybe they just stay in a box. Either way, I liked the dolls; they’re hypnotic.

Also cutesy. There was a lot of cute stuff, but often with a dark side. This is the specturm of cute: butterflies to dead dolls. There is very often though a link between cute and something sinister, and that’s probably why most people don’t trust babies. But then again, there were a lot of things that were just plain cute with happy Engrish phrases about honey and joy. They probably live next door to the doll caretakers.

There was also a guy driving around in quadrapedal robot. It was quite cool, and I think it gave him a good opportunity to talk to the ‘chicks’, as I often saw him crawling out and handing the joy stick over to a girl with a puppy dog shirt. But the way he drove the thing around reminded me of that kid in high school who broke both his legs on the bunny slope and was forced to drive an electric wheel chair for six weeks. He though he was so powerful, but cyborgs elicit more pity than respect. Though the robot *was pretty cool, and I would have liked a chance to drive it around, if only I’d been asked...

Best in show: the gigantic inflatible onion dangling from the roof. Though the event is not as weird as that makes it sound.

By seven our feet were worn weary and most of the booths were closing down, so we made our exit. The day finished with a great show of natures’ jealousy--the winds were high and my hat blew away and a wall of cloud was rolling along the horizon. A nice dramatic show that waited to tuck me in at night, because nature is so thoughtful. Thanks Nature!