Yukari Ishii's Exhibition and Constellation [March-April 2010]

March Xth

I went to the “Kintore” photo exhibition “Users Sphere; Hoshiori 2010” (Shibuya / Gallery Le Deco), organized by Yukari Ishii of the astrology site “Kintore” to commemorate the site's 10th anniversary. photo exhibition “Users Sphere; Hoshiori 2010” Ishii calls her work “star reading” rather than astrology, and since around 2000, she has been continuously attempting to treat the arrangement of stars as a “text” (in a critical sense) and perform “text reading” on her own site. She possesses a very rich vocabulary, but she has gained the support of many fans because she speaks in simple language that anyone can understand. I discovered “Kintore” by chance around 2002, and I have visited the site almost every week since then. I think it was also a coincidence that Ishii-san featured my “Design = Vessel” concept in her diary (→it was this day's diary: deleted), and she has occasionally come to visit my site as well. Even though we had never met in person, I felt like she was a distant friend. I am sure many other readers feel the same way about her through her weekly reports and daily horoscopes on Twitter.

This time, under the banner of “Kintore” presents, photos by two photographers, Ryoji Aida and Tatsumi Yamaguchi, who have participated in the books Ishii-san has published so far, are being exhibited. I headed to the venue feeling a little nervous, thinking that Ishii-san must surely be there. Tatsumi Yamaguchi, who worked on “Hoshiori-2006,” takes abstract photos that emphasize light, using motifs like water droplets. Ryoji Aida, who worked on “Hoshi nashi de, rabureta o.,” expresses the streets of Niigata where he lives with a dry tone that reminds one of foreign countries. Personally, I gazed at Aida-san's photos many times with a sense of nostalgia, as they were printed with a hard finish that reminded me of the foreign photos by Hiroshi Nire, with whom I used to work.

Well, where is Ishii-san? I wondered as I scanned the room, but she didn't seem to be in the library in the back (a corner where Ishii-san's books and the books she usually reads are lined up), which I had pegged as the place she would be. After searching for a few minutes, I thought, “Huh?” and discovered that the name tag hanging from the neck of the woman I had assumed was the gallery receptionist near the entrance said “Yukari Ishii.” I struggled to suppress the laughter that welled up at the elegant handwriting and the strange situation. Despite it being a moving meeting, I have completely forgotten what we specifically talked about, but I feel like I just kept praising her—about visiting her site, thanking her for this and that, about her book “Zengo” that came out last year, and about this exhibition.

I think Ishii-san's work of “star reading” is close to what is called a “constellation” (constellation; Wikipedia explanation = Analytical Psychology > Causality and Synchronicity) in psychological terms. The etymology of constellation also means “constellation” as it is (About Constellation | Seeking the Truth of Life). The reason Ishii-san's words resonate beyond mere astrology must be because they are selected through her own filter from a vast group of words, like the stars within her. If that is the case, I would like to see the roots of those vast words summarized in a large exhibition someday. Just imagining a giant horoscope of words sparkling on the ceiling is romantic. Would that be a place like, for example, the “Setagaya Literary Museum: Yukari Ishii Exhibition”? I felt happy thinking about how I might be able to help, just like when I participated in brainstorming almost every week for the Kazufumi Miyazawa exhibition at Setabun, and as I mixed in such realistic delusions, dreams for the “next” thing kept expanding in my head after I got home, even though it wasn't my own exhibition.

April Xth

The month turned and spring arrived. I went to the “TDC Exhibition 2010” at the Ginza Graphic Gallery. I was drawn to the Grand Prix work I saw on the 1st floor, “Unseen Gaza” by Why Not Associates. It is a trailer for a news program about reporting on the Gaza Strip in Israel, and it skillfully uses typography and graphics to express how information that viewers should see is hidden under censorship. I thought the judges' sense and feeling for the times in choosing such a work for the Grand Prix were sharp. SOUR's “Hibi no Neiro” (a work by Shinji Kawamura, the creator of “RAINBOW IN YOUR HAND”), which also became a hot topic on the internet, was selected, and compared to design awards that feel like survival checks for top art directors, advertising agencies, and clients, I felt it was absorbing the atmosphere of the times much more. The nominated works exhibited in the basement also felt more powerful than usual.

April Xth
I went to Mick Itaya “Chochin” at GALLERY SPEAK FOR in Daikanyama. Mick's usual character figures and such were on paper lanterns. His sense for turning his own world into merchandise is rare, and I hope to use it as a reference if the opportunity arises someday. There was a work with Mick's paintings on lanterns that said, “We will add your shop name or your favorite characters,” and I was debating whether or not to buy one.

April Xth
At Gallery Tokyo Bamboo in Nogizaka, the original drawing exhibition for the CD “Ichi ni tsuite” by Hirotaka Nakagawa and Tomohiko Fujimoto, for which I was in charge of the design, began. This album has 14 card-style lyric sheets, and each side features illustrations by picture book artists who imagined the songs. The exhibition and sale of those original drawings and the picture books published by the artists were held. I also helped produce the exhibition announcement postcards and postcard sets. I thought enthusiastic fans would buy the original drawings, so I ordered a cute frame (a size that can display the “Ichi ni tsuite” lyric cards) made by Nonoho-chan, the lead singer of the album, and her friends. I will come back again on the day of the gallery live in a few days.

I returned to Ebisu and went to NADiff A.P.A.R.T. to see John Warwicker’s first solo exhibition “for john cage (la mer) – the Floating World”. As the title suggests, the works were inspired by John Cage's “Silence” and Debussy's “La Mer.” I think it is graphic designer-like that a certain regularity is found in drawings that look rough at first glance. It is like the sea, like water ripples, and like the ripples of sound generated by the constant kick of the songs of Underworld, the band he belongs to. I also viewed Kyoko Murase's “Drawings,” which was being held in the store.

April Xth
I went to the Gogo Miffy Exhibition that started at Matsuya Ginza. Based on the forecast that it would be crowded on weekends and toward the end of the exhibition, I went on a Friday afternoon, and thanks to the rain, I was able to see it normally. The original drawings, cels, and corrected versions drawn for each picture book are lined up in an easy-to-understand way. The more I look at them, the more I deepen my thought that Bruna-san is not an illustrator but a graphic designer. The merchandise area was even more crowded than the exhibition area. I didn't end up buying anything today. I will bring my Miffy-loving daughter again during the exhibition period, so I will do it then.

April Xth
The gallery live on the final day of the “Ichi ni tsuite” Original Drawing Exhibition at Gallery Tokyo Bamboo. Picture book authors who are also good at singing and playing instruments, such as Kazuyoshi Iino, Yoshinari Murakami, Yoshifumi Hasegawa, and Tomohiko Fujimoto, participated one after another as guests in the performance by ON'S, led by Hirotaka Nakagawa. I started wanting to play an instrument myself. I felt that music is freer compared to work where the path is somewhat decided, such as design.

――I have left the exhibition tweets from autumn 2010 onwards on this hashtag #gbiyori.