DEROLL Commissions Series 2: Japanese History
How can a designer handle ‘Japanese history’ not as style but as real material? Can the Japanese history be applied for Japanese contemporary daily life?
Hisakazu Shimizu, designer of Canon’s IXUS Digital camera series, responeded to these questions and designed two big products. From last 28th October to 3rd November, 2008 the second exhibition of DEROLL Commissions directed Eizo Okada, who asks talented Japanese artists, designers and architects to design one-off product.
Ii Naosuke
This piece was inspired by the idea of checking one’s hairstyle when looking into a mirror. The first in a series based on historical figures, this piece is modeled after Ii Naosuke, one of the most important political figures of the late Edo period who is most famous for his proposal supporting the opening of Japan to the outside world.
Chonmage Piggy Bank
Based on the theme of “Japanese history,” this piece is inspired by an event that took place during the Meiji Restoration in 1868 and shocked the people of the time. As part of the movement to open Japan to the West, the government ordered all samurai to cut their hair (arranged in the traditional topknot called chonmage) to a short Western style.
The piece draws its inspiration from scenes of a samurai cutting off his chonmage, which have been meticulously reenacted countless times in historical dramas.
Eizo Okada’s text for the exhibition:
When I first encountered a truly new design, I was puzzled, having absolutely no understanding of what it was. I was speechless, as if all words had been completely erased from my mind.
I guess I can say that it was a feeling like I was all alone in an unknown place where I couldn’t communicate. The reason for feeling like I was all alone was perhaps because the piece was completely out of the context of ordinary design.
It’s very difficult to objectively evaluate something that is out of context. If there’s nothing to compare it to, it’s the same as not being able to measure size or distance. To the extent that there is no comparison, it looks less like anything that came before it.
When you encounter such a piece, you lose the understanding of design that you thought you had. I think that is what a design that is truly new is.
DEROLL Commissions Series 2: Japanese History
At SPACE INTART
2-9-15 Kita-aoyama
Minato-ku
Tokyo 107-0061
Designer: Hisakazu Shimizu – SABO STUDIO
Curator: Eizo Okada – dezain.net
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting, hope to see you back again soon!
