Japan CREAM Festival Competition

International Festival For Arts and Media Yokohama 2009, a pioneer project of ‘Creative City Yokohama’, could not be categorized as either an ordinary film festival or a contemporary art exhibition.

CREAM competition craves a new visual expression, or works that cross the borderlines between different genres of art such as contemporary art, film, performing art, music and etc., and therefore inspire and influence the future generations.

Submissions due 31 July

Find out more at http://ifamy.jp/en/competition.php

Toilet paper machine made in Japan

Office supplies vendor Nakabayashi has come up with an in-office machine that turns used copier paper into toilet rolls. According to the company, the machine, which weighs 600kg, can produce about 48 toilet rolls over a 24-hour period from around 7.2kg of used copier paper. The machine costs JPY9m. Unfortunately, there is no information on the cost or volume of chemicals needed to run it.

Cited Japan Inc

Makeup booths debut in stations

When a girl’s gotta go, she’s gotta go — to do her makeup, that is. Tokyo Metro has just installed a makeup booth facility at Ikebukuro and JR is going to put one in at Yokohama in June. The stations will be charging just JPY300/ hour for women to touch up their faces in private, as well as try out samples that are provided by sponsors to the stations. The booths come in a cluster, and include a mirror, vanity cabinet, hair dryer, and of course the cosmetic samples.

Japanese Gay Art new blog and Melbourne exhibit

Masahiko Takagi has started a Japanese gay art blog, www.japanesegayart.com. It’s fairly new but they have already uploaded an interview with Jiraiya, well known erotic artist.

Also exhibiting some works in Melbourne at Hares & Hyenas queer bookshop in Fitzroy, from Saturday May 16th. The bookshop has just added a new café, and is having an opening party for the café Sunday the 17th, from 3pm. The address is 63 Johnston Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia.

Other plans for exhibits in 2010, include events for Midsumma in Melbourne and Mardis Gras in Sydney.

No-alcohol “beer” a hit in Japan

Good news for pregnant mums, designated drivers (Japan has zero blood alcohol tolerance for drivers), and old guys who can’t hold their liquor! A beer that tastes like the real thing but has absolutely no alcohol in it has hit the stores. Kirin’s “Free” beer seems to have broken the taste barrier that has dogged other non-alcoholic (dog’s) brews and has been such a huge hit that it has sold out all over the country.

(Source: TT commentary from reuters.com, Apr 23, 2009)

Between Site & Space – Exhibition

EXONEMO, ALEX GAWRONSKI, PARAMODEL, GAIL PRIEST, TIM SILVER, HIRAKU SUZUKI
Curators: Reuben Keehan and Hisako Hara

Image above: Paramodel, Paramodelic Graffiti, 2008, installation view, Tokyo Wonder Site, Shibuya, Tokyo

Between Site & Space represents the culmination of a two-stage collaboration between Tokyo Wonder Site and Artspace, Sydney. The project was conceived as a means to facilitate contact and dialogue between Australian and Japanese artists, strengthening and diversifying international artist networks while introducing audiences in both countries to new and innovative artistic practices that respond to the sites of their production and presentation. To this end, the notion of ‘exhibition’ has been considered in its expanded form, as the platform for a complex of encounters occurring over an extended period, not limited to a single venue, place or timeframe.

During the first phase of the project, Sydney artists Alex Gawronski, Gail Priest and Tim Silver undertook an intensive residency in Tokyo, drawing on their experiences of the city, in many ways exploring it through their individual practices, to produce work for exhibition alongside Japanese artist Hiraku Suzuki and collectives exonemo and Paramodel in Diorama of the City at Tokyo Wonder Site, Shibuya. Supported by a similar period of residency at Artspace, Between Site & Space elaborates the works, concepts and relationships emerging from this process, with Artspace hosting the artists as they further engage the politics of site, mapping, through photography, wall painting, installation, sound and media art, place and displacement alike.

A joint project developed in collaboration with Tokyo Wonder Site. Supported by the Japan Foundation. Part of the Australia-Japan Strategic Ties for the Arts Program, an initiative of Asialink, supported by the Australia-Japan Foundation and the Australia Council for the Arts.

13 March – 18 April 2009

Artspace website

A Japanese life of bento

Bentos are just starting to penetrate the consciousness of people outside of Japan, though judging from the growing interest in bento sites like this one and several others, it’s definitely trending up. However, the bento or obento (the more polite honorific term) in its many guises is an integral part of life in Japan. Here are the many different types of bento that a typical Japanese person might eat at different stages of life.

http://justbento.com/handbook/bento-culture/japanese-life-bento

Japanese Modern & Pop Art – Part of the 2009 Sydney Mardis Gras

Boys Life by 30 Japanese Artists.  Mayumi International is proud to be joining the 2009 Mardis Gras festival in Sydney. We are presenting ‘Boys Life’, an exhibition of gay Japanese artists. From manga to erotic, pop to hardcore, each artwork depicts Japanese gay life from the Edo period to the pop culture of the Shinjuku streets. Featuring gay manga illustrators, magazine photographers and ‘Kawaii’ erotic sculptures.

The exhibition features artists who have never exhibited in Australia before, with each artist presenting new works of art. All the exhibiting artists are professional gay artists whose work has been published in Japan and around the world, including Gengoroh Tagame, a well known and widely published gay erotic artist. This type of group exhibitionrarely, if ever, occurs in Japan, where gay culture is firmly in the
underground.

Get a taste of a Japanese boys life!

Tap Gallery
278 Palmer Street
Darlinghurst, Sydney
February 24 – March 8
12pm – 6pm, open 7 days a week

Featured artists Hideki Kou, PINKMAN, KENYA SHIMIZU and GENGOROH TAGAME