Leaving the Hood....

Leaving the Hood

Araki opening!

Check it out! By good fortune, and a little tip off from one of my private students, I was lucky enough to attend the recent opening of Araki's new work!!!!!!What at awesome luck! Being such a reknowned photog, he usually only shows in large museums, so I felt very priviledged to be there. I am begining to realize the arty farty crowd is the same all around the world...it was great, I felt like I could have been in some musty basement on Van City's east side, drinking wine, pondering aesthetics vs. conceptualism and making snide comments with my photo geeks from back home :)

There was a really interesting preformance with all these Japanese girls dressed as flight attendants, tied together with caution tape, whirling in a circle around the various galleries, handing out buttons of the faces.........hmmmmmmmmmm

more from Design Festa....

Design Festa

I recently participated in a large art event here in Tokyo called Design Festa. The exhibition involves thousands of artists, working in all mediums, everything from painting and photography to leathercraft to preformance art and fashion! The event was held in a newly developed area on the edge of Tokyo. Odaiba is located on the bay, and the architecture is very futuristic! I took a monorail out to the event and views of the bay and the buildings were spectacular...unfortunately I had to shoot through glass to capture them.

The first day of Design Festa I was volunterring as a photographer, photo-documenting and interviewing various artists and their work. The second day I showed Possibilties, my digital installation work from graduation. It screened in the projection space. The rest of the day was spent wandering around and exploring the overwhelming variety of creative endevours the festival had to offer....some definately more cohesive than others!

Here are some shots from the event,one of my piece in the space, and the preformance that followed. There are also some shots of the fashion show and other creatives, as well as the bizarre and spacey architecture...

Japanese green!

A friend of mine from Vancouver made a stop in Tokyo for about ten days recently. We decided to take him to Yoyogi Park, in Harajuku, for a typical Tokyo experience. On Sundays everyone goes to the park to see and be seen. There are all kinds of crazy musical acts, everything from music students to strangely obessed Elvis fanatics. Unlike most places, no one in Tokyo is preforming for money, they just do it for the love of it....and what a strange love it can sometimes be! The buskers are all just out there having fun, and strutting their stuff, no matter how questionable. Here are some of my favourite acts from that day....a regular occurance, and probably my number one, are the Japanese Elvises, all middles aged, and hardcore!!!!!! They are there at the entrance to the park every Sunday, without fail! So are the goth/doll girlies, posing for photos with tourists and anyone else who is interested.

Hakone heaven!

I visited a small town outside of Tokyo named Hakone, famous for its onsens (natural hot spring baths). It was a treat to get away from the stiffling atmosphere of the busy city, and be surrounded by lush green! We went with some friends, and walked a ways up to our particular onsen. Once there, we relaxed in the hot spring baths, both indoor and outdoor pools, for several hours! It was relaxation heaven! This was definately the best thing I have dome since arriving in Japan! After our wonderful afternoon we went for a delicious soba dinner and braved the Tokyo highways with our Japanes friends, driving back to the neon reality of the city. These are some photos of the town of Hakone and the interior of the onsen building, no photos are allowed in the baths.....