What’s real and not real? These days, it’s simply hard to tell. Meet Imma, the very first virtual model from the Land of the Rising Sun, and with her signature pink bob, an easily recognisable one. But it’s not easy to tell she’s just a virtual phenomenon. Always collaborating with top artists and brands, the model’s realness and authenticity in a world of virtually unreal social media makes her also a contrarian voice for the future. Mind you, Imma was even selected as ‘New 100 Talent To Watch’ by Japan Economics Entertainment and has appeared in numerous magazines, on TV and online. And now, she’s the focal point of a group exhibition at DIESEL Art Gallery in Tokyo. Entitled immaten, the show is curated by Japanese virtual reality company Aww, and sees a presentation of the model with artworks by 13 of her friends who also happen to be some of the most forward artists in the country, all presented in a scenography by visual art and motion graphic animation artist Minori Murata, one of the duo behind the art unit Skydiving Magazine. The works on display are all inspired by Imma, and include paintings, drawings, graphics, digital data, photos, moving images, and sculptures. The participating artists are YOSHIROTTEN, Yasusuke Kawamura, Yuni Yoshida, Toki, Jun Inagawa, Kim Songhe, Riyoo Kim, Amazing JIRO, Yuma Kishi, MASAKO.Y, Shinya Yamada, Kanatan and Takuya Kamioka (on through Sep 2).
DIESEL Art Gallery
1-23-16-B1 Shibuya (Shibuya)
Tokyo 150-0002
Telephone: +81 3 64275955
Daily 11.30am-8pm
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.
