One of the events of the Setouchi Triennale‘s summer session is, just like three years ago, the Project for Sea-Light in Takamatsu, those large paper lamps/sculptures created by local schools and organisations under the supervision of Noboru Tsubaki and the Kyoto University of Art and Design.
Here are most of them on Saturday night, when they were all together at the Sunport for their inauguration as part of the opening festivities and ceremonies. Since then, they’ve spread out all over downtown, I’m not exactly sure where yet, but I’m sure I’ll run into them sooner or later.
I have to admit that I find them a little less interesting than three years ago – although I really love the “cube pile” – but who knows, maybe they look better in the streets, especially far from each other.
I like the 5th picture. The whale/fish with what looks like a rabbit reading a newspaper above the tail (silhouette). Hope to see the future photos of them all around town. Would be nice if they were in theme/related locations.
If I understood right, the thing that the whale has at the tip of its tail is the moon, with the rabbit on the moon making mochi.
Cool. That sounds really fun.
Love the abstract cubes; not sure at all about the rest. I tend to reach cuteness saturation level fairly quickly.
Same here. At first I really wanted to see them all together (as I had missed it three years ago), but as you said: too much cuteness in one spot. That’s why I think I’ll appreciate them better when they scattered all around town.
On the other hand, I do think that the sculptures are more “cute” this year generally speaking.
I suspect that while Noboru Tsubaki was really hands on the project three years ago, not that much this year, I guess that it was mostly his students and the local kids and organizations in charge. But that goes along with Tsubaki’s philosophy of art for the people by the people. Sure those sculptures are a bit too kawai, but in the end, it also means that those local kids got to make art that is part of the Setouchi Triennale, next to the Starn brothers, Oscar Oiwa and Tadao Ando and the other big names.