Time flies when you’re having fun shopping, especially at GINZA SIX. Five years ago, the high-end shopping centre in Tokyo‘s bustling Ginza district first opened its doors, giving the illustrious shopping area a major boost. In celebration of its fifth anniversary, GINZA SIX presents a series of specially commissioned installations of Tokyo-based artist and photographer Kenta Cobayashi on the premises. Entitled Reflex, the installations encompass video footage and graphic works of a series of urban landscapes of cities both in Japan and abroad that the artist has visited over the years, including the Japanese capital’s highly energetic Shibuya area, his home base until 2017, and New York City. The imagery, and especially the shots of Shibuya, brilliantly reflects the neighbourhood’s energy and the frenetic pace of urban transformation, and features an eclectic mosaic of architecture, people, and colourful smudgy strokes.
For the exhibition, Cobayashi has also made photographs of the Ginza neighbourhood, mostly taken from the GINZA SIX rooftop, that feature many of its landmark buildings and which have been used to create his signature artwork which sees colourful graphics boldly blended into photography. Both the graphic design, shown on a variety of surfaces throughout GINZA SIX, and the video footage are inspired by the fifth anniversary logo designed by renowned graphic designer Kenya Hara. Shoppers find a six-metre high video work, entitled Reflex Kaleidoscopes, at the main entrance on Chuo dori, and further inside the shopping centre, on the glass side surfaces of the escalators leading to the upper floors, the Intersection of Reflex Colours is shown. The basement section of GINZA SIX features Cobayashi’s main showcase on the premises—a ceiling installation called Reflex Colours which spans an entire shopping corridor (on through May 8). Mind you, artbeat publishers has released a Reflex photo book which can be purchased at the Tsutaya bookstore on the sixth floor or online.
GINZA SIX
6-10-1 Ginza (Ginza)
Tokyo 104-0061
Telephone: +81 3 68913390
Daily 10.30am-11pm
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.
