Following his graduation from Kuwasawa Design School in Tokyo, Hiroyuki Arikawa embarked on a multi-hyphenate career path, planning and designing for various apparel brands, dabbling in music as a DJ and producer, while also founding WORKSHOP™, a venture which focuses on the design of objects and fixtures, in addition to related spatial showcases. It’s the creative’s latter initiative which has taken centre stage at Contrast, the gallery space of Tokyo-based digital creative agency In Focus. In 2021, Arikawa created a series of visuals for the revered Tokyo Design Studio of sneaker brand New Balance, featuring industrial products such as aluminium frames, LED fluorescent lights, and cords. The understated premises of the gallery space form a fitting backdrop for a curated range of these large-size works. The showcase presents a starting point called Changes in Manifested Memory in which the artist himself traces the sensations and memories of the past that he had forgotten, and how he has arbitrarily recorded and accumulated visual and aural information. In addition to solid objects, very much Arikawa’s forte, the creative present works that incorporate non-visual structures, such as sound and rhythmic sequencing, as well as themes that reflect fashion. Last but not least, specially created publications by publishing house Rondade of this show can be purchased (on through Feb 5).
Contrast
1-49-4 Tomigaya (Shibuya)
Tokyo 150-0063
Telephone: +81 3 64275227
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.
