Known for his highly experimental and somewhat outlandish projects with exotic flowers and plants, Tokyo-based flower artist Azuma Makoto keeps thing small-scaled for his latest installation in the Japanese capital. Held at StandBy, the concrete bunker-like annex of contemporary art gallery The Mass in the city’s Harajuku district, and opening there on Sat – Dec 12, it’s in fact a collaboration with botanical photographer Shunsuke Shiinoki who also happens to be part of Makoto’s AMKK collective. Elaborately entitled Paludarium Tachiko & Yasutoshi, the installation is a new chapter which Makoto adds to a series of previous artistic projects, and here it revolves around a new interpretation of the paludarium, or greenhouse, a method to shield plants from the outside and induce regulated growth. The endeavour of the two Japanese creatives is a far cry from the original concept which dates back to the 19th-century when British aristocrats invented it for sheer entertainment purposes. The installation on display once again is highly experimental, fusing horticulture, technology and design into a visual spectacle which, as said, Makoto has become known for in his homeland and also increasingly abroad.
StandBy
5-11-1 Jingumae (Harajuku)
Tokyo 150-0001
Telephone: +81 3 64275834
Mon 10-7
Wed-Sun 10-7
Closed on Dec 28
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
