Creativity over Cash: a Kessels Kramer visit
Forest wallpaper and astroturf floors, a wooden fortress and a golden lifeguard tower, animals huddled atop a diving board. This surreal landscape is the last thing you might expect to find inside a refurbished 19th century church in the middle of Amsterdam. But then, these are the offices of Kessels Kramer (KK), an advertising agency that likes to explode expectations. With a workplace like this, perhaps it’s not that unbelievable that KK projects are so strikingly bold and original that the company has earned the admiration and envy of ad creators around the world as well as a list of clients that includes names like Nike Europe, Heineken and Diesel. It’s here that KK brews up ad campaigns that …»
John Kormeling and a hole in the the wall
John Kormeling stands amidst the disarray that is his house. Metal scraps, paper shreds, a screaming child and watermelon rinds are strewn across the space. Models in metal and wood, children’s toys, faded posters, piles of books, trunks and dark corners full of mystery all make it clear that this is a man who keeps everything. It is one of those rare days in the depths of summer when a balmy heat descends on the Netherlands and sits like …»
Tree Climbing with John Gathright in Aichi
“Carry your own tree within your heart.” Ever since reading those words by the great poet Sansei Yamao I have searched for my tree. A tree rooted in the Earth, a tree that has been there for years and years. Trees are gods. If you have a problem or are troubled by something, the best thing to do is to spend time with a tree. John Gathright, an ecologist and tree climber who lives in a tree house he built for himself and his family in the mountains of Seto in Aichi prefecture, was taught this by his grandfather, and now he passes it onto the kids that come to learn tree climbing from him. …»
The Timeless Gardens of Mirei Shigemori
It’s hard to find a spot in Kyoto that feels all your own. The city is dotted with famous temples and their gorgeous grounds, but it’s impossible to find one that isn’t crowded year round. What’s more, while each boasts historic sculptures of Buddha or painted screens, when you go for a look you find them roped off and placed in musty chambers dark enough to blur their venerable outlines.
Last fall, I followed a page in my guidebook to a place near Toufukuji Temple and discovered a cozy corner of the old capital that had previously eluded me. …»
Place, and the Photography of Wim Wenders
“All my films start with places- cities, deserts. But then in the process of filmmaking, these places step into the background. The characters and stories become paramount, and finally the only parameter of the movie is the truth of that story, and the truth of the characters overriding everything else. With photography I can reverse the process, and I can leave these places up front. They are what the pictures are about.” – Wim Wenders
Commissioned by the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris to create a film about fashion, Wim Wenders delivered Notebooks on Cities and Clothes, an idiosyncratic film/video essay on identity, the medium(s) of cinema, and the designs of Yohji Yamamoto. Pondering the present, Wenders, a true global citizen, finds a bilingual metaphor to describe this most transient of art forms. “It seemed to me that Yohji expressed himself in two languages simultaneously,” he says in German-accented English. “He played two instruments at the same time: the fluid and the solid, the fleeting and the permanent, the fugitive and the stable.”
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Memories of Island Life III: Takashi Savory,1972
The final of our three-part series taking a personal look back at the Ogasawara Islands (Parts 1 & 2).
The Ogasawara Islands of Tokyo Prefecture could be mistaken for a Japanese Garden of Eden, located far out amidst the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. The Islands were uninhabited until 1830, when they were first settled by Americans and Europeans who arrived from Hawaii, the US mainland and elsewhere. In 1861, they came under Japanese control and Japanese citizens began to immigrate. To this day, many people of mixed heritage reside here. Following World War II, …»
Traveling a planet of sound: Haruomi Hosono
Haruomi Hosono’s early discography contains the band Happy End (1970-73). Digesting the influences of America’s West Coast rock, they established an idiom for Japanese language rock. Solo releases like “Bon Voyage Co.” (1976), which rediscovered Asia via the perspective of Hollywood, saw him enter a period of exotic sound exploration. Blending in Kraftwerk-style electronica, Yellow Magic Orchestra (1978-83, 1993) took this sound in a disco direction. “Omni Sightseeing” (1989) then delved into the roots of pop worldwide. Throughout, Hosono’s music leads listeners on journeys that transcend both borders and generations. As a record label producer, Hosono ran the YEN label from 1982, the Non Standard label (which released pre-break Pizzicato Five) from 1984, and the Daisyworld label from 1996. The current label’s motto is “Keep Listening, Keep Searching!” …»
