art for everyone

via designboom.
korean artist jeonghwa choi exhibiting at the towada art center, japan.

designboom quote:
'he has recycled everyday goods, such as rice bowls and plastic housewares transforming them into sculptural pieces. as part of the exhibition, works are currently installed in various locations around the city including high-street shops and public places.'

i am loving korean artists. here is an earlier post on kwangho lee's lighting. and here for some photos via + blog by hasisi park.

the above is called marie antoinette

喫茶

siphon coffee seems like it is becoming the next big thing in the coffee world. which is great. the alchemy and the romance of the old-fashioned siphon coffee is almost enough to make a dedicated tea drinker like me consider a switch to the bean. almost, but not quite. 

siphon coffee has been a feature of coffee shops in japan forever. the 喫茶店 (kissaten) of japan are so wonderful. they all share certain features: older, coffee connoisseur regular customers, a darkened 70s-style interior, sometimes wooden carved chairs with leather seats, sometimes chairs of curved tubular steel. there is always the gleaming siphons, glossy pot plants and  understated sugar bowls, cups and saucers. there might be a neat stack of papers, or a tumbling shelf of manga and records. and japan being the smokers' haven - the cut glass ashtrays for the seven stars butts. 

kissa are often hidden away up a narrow staircase, or behind streetfront lace curtains or faux stained glass, and i am unspeakably happy to find this treasure trove of photos of the kissa of kyoto in flickr by a.iwatani. just so very very great.

melbourne syphon coffee.

ku:nel and sudare

happiness, ku:nel volume 38 arrived in the mail just the other day. it provided a refresher on the simple way japanese homes adapt to the variations in temperature across the seasons.

i have recently filled in my back verandah to make a sunny eating, reading and tea drinking spot in my house. it is called the nook. i have a little pergola-type construction jutting out as well, but summer will be hot. i think i will use similar bamboo screening (sudare) leaned against the back of my house when the summer sun is at its worst. then remove when i want those rays back again in autumn and winter. so i am thinking to employ sudare and deciduous grape vine, and am also thinking of strawberries planted in a vertical grid and trained tomato and bean vines that give a green edible shield at the height of the summer sun. but is that too much? anyway, i think sudare are a simple, adaptable solution to keeping a house cool come summer. 

above top: quneru flickr

above bottom: detail from ku:nel

not sudare,  but nice photo showing how in summer bamboo sliding doors replace the solid doors to allow for cross-ventilation: ku:nel

external view of the leaning bamboo: ku:nel

katu-dong flickr

above two: miho flickr

machiya sudare: glue-nobu flickr

aozora.umikaze flickr

wagashi

wagashi is an artform.

all wagashi and images: bananagranola

bizen yakimono

bizenware is a type of japanese kiln-fired pottery made in okayama prefecture. the pottery is unglazed, and the various effects are the result of entirely natural processes during the firing in the red pine wood kilns. straw placed around the pot burns off into red stripes, ash congeals and leaves brownish markings, or charcoal drops and marks the pots.

bizen pottery site.

e-yakimono bizen site.

these images via japanese pottery.