When I think about living in Japan, my mind gravitates towards the reasons why I hate it here. This list was supposed to challenge me, but it was a lot easier than I first thought. Aside from the fam, it’s a reminder and a snap shot of what has kept me out of the mad house. Here’s ten things I love about this island in no particular order. The City That The Super Villain Built The buildings look like “more-than-meets-the-eye” sentinel …
Category: Japan
Geishas rock afros, corn rolls and dreadlocks. They fashionably freeze with the same intensity that break dancers pose on the floor, but artist Iona Rozeal Brown’s acrylic painted Asiatic people are in brown face, and they’re a clashing of sorts. Comic book motifs, Ukiyo-e prints, Kabuki theater, Noh, Byzantine religious painting, voguing and most notably hip-hop, mix together like two turntables playing tug of war with the cross fader. If Brown was a DJ (which apparently she is), she’d be taking viewers on a journey all …
A year and a half after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, artist Alejandro Chaskielberg visited the small town of Otsuchi. He photographed 20 families sitting on the foundation where their homes once stood. He found contorted belongings that felt like tortured symbols of a traumatized psyche. The altered lay of the land reflects a destroyed way of life that won’t ever come back. Using colors from a photo found in a damaged photo album, Chaskielberg painted on top of these long exposed monochrome …
Last Friday Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Teebs, Taylor McFerrin and Mono/Poly played Tokyo, Skinkiba at ageHa. No cameras were allowed. Foreigners were spotted throughout the crowd. When I walked into the venue Simi Lab, a Japanese hip-hop group was on stage. Man, they tried, but their music and performance didn’t offer anything original. It just wasn’t interesting, but at least they weren’t embarrassing. I wasn’t cringing, put it that way. Artist and producer Teebs greeted the crowd with a Japanese thank …
Sculptor of ill otherworldly wooden animals, AJ Fosik opened a show in Tokyo, Japan at The Hellion Gallery last week. He gave 12 of his hand crafted animals to 12 Japanese artists to paint as they see fit. The artists included Yoshi 47, Ryuichi Ogino, Imaone, Hiro Kurata, Usugrow, Shohei, Tadaomi Shibuya, Madsaki, Nigamushi, Kaz, Mhak, and Koichiro Takagi. If your in the land of the rising sun, the show is up through May 11th. hpgrp Gallery Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Jingumae 5-1-15 CH …
Socials