To celebrate the re-opening of its newly restored Design Gallery, housed within a 19th聽century Athenaeum theatre space, is presenting fashion, furniture, lighting, ceramics, glass, metalwork and jewellery works created in Japan over the past 50聽years. Initiated by pieces from Manchester鈥檚 own collection, the exhibition even reaches to contemporary pieces made by designers such as the recent Royal College of Art graduate and Issey Miyake designer, Maiko Takeda.
Takeda鈥檚 millinery, designed for Bjork鈥檚 Biophilia tour, is displayed alongside recent acquisitions from Miyake 鈥 such as his sculptural lighting made from recycled PET bottles and structured fashion pieces 鈥 alongside fashion pieces from designer Yohji Yamamoto, furniture and lighting by Masanori Umeda and Shiro Kuramata and crafts by Takahiro Yede and Yasuko Sakura.
The exhibition鈥檚 installation gives rise to many international connections: the pure white curves of Tatsuya Nakamura鈥檚 Resting Wings table, for example, displayed beside the heavy asymmetric drapery of a Comme des Gar莽ons wedding dress. Making further comparison are pieces by British artists and makers such as Edmund de Waal, whose theory on the colour white as a sculptural form in itself can apply to much of the Japanese works on show.
The show聽totals over 100 pieces by 32聽designers, and not only compares international modern and contemporary works but also explores spiritualism and Japanese philosophy, as well as how the traditional Japanese respect for nature and natural forces has influenced design, and in the use of new and eco-friendly materials, how this reverence continues to affect new design in Japan and worldwide.
Modern Japanese Design,聽until聽15聽January 2017,聽Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, Manchester, M2 3JL.
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Credits
1.聽Takahiro Yede. Hibiki (Echoes), 2015.
