UNDERSCORE N°3:THE FIGHT ISSUE by Stephanie Peh

underscore n°3: the fight issue

CONTENTS epigraph chapter eleven page 08

neighbourhood n°11 QUARTIERI SPAGNOLI — Jeroen Pruijt page 10

YOUR HAND IN MINE Music through thick and thin of lifelong relationships — SY Chia page 14

ON FAILED OMELETTES Regaining courage amidst setbacks — Naz Sahin page 18 conversation n°7

JÓHANN JÓHANNSSON A conversation with the Icelandic composer page 22

WHITE OUT An inborn passion to create — Chauntelle Trinh

page 60

ADAPT OR DIE On a journey in search of identity — Sharon Leisinger chapter thirteen page 70

AN ETHEREAL BEAUTY A lifelong dedication to seamless perfection — Rose Mulready page 75

THE IMPERMANENT PICTURES The transience of memories living within people — Caspar Newbolt page 78

neighbourhood n°13 BAIXA — Annett Bourquin (ANVE) page 80

THE BOX MAN On homes built with discarded materials — Leonardo Pellegatta page 87

chapter twelve page 34

ISHINOMAKI A new reality in the aftermath of destruction — Taisuke Koyama page 42

BIG SUR On the perseverance of nature — Ryan Simon page 48

ABOVE AND BEYOND An aerial documentation of forgotten places — Stephan Zirwes page 58

neighbourhood n°12 BREITE — Lilia Rusterholtz & Alex Erath

GARDENS CONTAINED AND FLOATING Creating art through the adaptability of plants — Lauren Palmor chapter fourteen

page 118

neighbourhood n°14 VOORSTRAAT — Joachim Baan (Another Something) chapter fifteen page 122 conversation n°10

BEN GORHAM A conversation with the founder of Byredo page 129

THE U STORE A store curated by Underscore page 133

ALMOST EVERY DAY A routine of life’s inevitable chaos — Peter Silberman (The Antlers) page 137

A QUIET MOMENT A connection between past and present — Hila Shachar page 140

neighbourhood n°15 TIONG BAHRU — Karen Wai (BooksActually) page 142 end note

A DAY’S PROMISE Light spiritual and functional — Stephanie Peh page 145

page 98 conversation n°8

THOMAS PERSSON A conversation with the editor of Acne Paper page 110 conversation n°9

LY NA TY A conversation with one half of Song For The Mute — Samuel Willett

JAPAN: SONS & DAUGHTERS

underscore n°3

editor Justin Long art director Jerry Goh sub-editor Stephanie Peh media & communication Sharon Leisinger contributing photographer Jovian Lim associates Berlin Chauntelle Trinh Melbourne Samuel Willett Seattle Lauren Palmor art direction & design HJGHER japanese translation Darryl Jingwen Wee distribution Europe Export Press Japan Utrecht Australia Speedimpex For distribution enquires, kindly email to info@underscoremagazine.com advertising For advertising enquires, kindly email to ads@underscoremagazine.com printing Dominie Press publisher H/Publishing paper RJ Paper

contact underscore 75 Jalan Kelabu Asap Singapore 278268 tel/fax +65 6300 8568 email info@underscoremagazine.com website www.underscoremagazine.com featured photographers Leonardo Pellegatta Ryan Simon Stephan Zirwes Taisuke Koyama contributors Alex Erath Annelie Bruijn Annett Bourquin Caspar Newbolt Hila Shachar James Braund James Underwood Jeroen Pruijt Joachim Baan Karen Vandenberghe Karen Wai Lilia Rusterholtz Lisa Tomasetti Lynette Wills Naz Sahin Nick Simonite Peter Silberman Rose Mulready Serifcan Ozcan Spencer Yong Sy Chia Xenia Wiederkehr Zheng Jiaxin

special thanks Adrian Mörner Hansen Anna Wallén Astrid Olsson Chris Lee Damir Doma Dana West Lee Cotter Maria Schönhofer Maya Nago Mike Abelson Nathan Yong Sofie Canebro Gewert Sony Pictures Stefanie Sedlak Stephan Wembacher Studio Babelsberg AG Sawako Fukai The Australian Ballet Tim Husom Tom Wironen japan: sons ¤ daughters Umitaro Abe Yoshiko Edstrom Shigeo Goto Yoshitaka Haba Kasetsu Erika Kobayashi Hidetoshi Kuranari Maho Masuzaki Ryoko Moichi Ryuji Nakamura Fumikazu Ohara Takayuki Suzuki Yasuhiro Suzuki Ryosuke Uehara Yoshie Watanabe Yoshikazu Yamagata Teruhiro Yanagihara

underscore © 2011. All rights reserved. Any reproduction without permission is prohibited. The views expressed in underscore are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily shared by underscore. underscore welcomes new contributions but assumes no responsibility for all unsolicited materials received. ISSN 2010-0590 • MICA (P) 227/09/2009

for your information cover image Photography by Taisuke Koyama.

This is the handwriting of Damir Doma.

The default underscore typeface. paper Munken Print Cream remains ideal. It is fsc and pefc certiďŹ ed. music A selection of songs to complete your reading experience.

e pigr a ph

On March 11th 2011, a 9.0m earthquake hit the Pacific coast of Tohoku, Japan and what resulted was an unprecedented sequence of natural/unnatural events that would charge us to question the notion of power; of mother nature, of authority, of nuclear consumption, of the human spirit. In the aftermath a few days on, the world witnessed an unparalleled coming together of the Japanese community. In place of expected scenes of panic, hoarding and looting, were instead images of order, self control and mutual respect. While the people of Japan stoically soldiered on, world reports attributed this social phenomenon to the Japanese ethos of Gaman; strength in forbearance, perseverance, patience. When we began this issue, it was with intention to continue on from the Constant theme and to help Japan in what little we could as a magazine. We decided to dedicate our last signature of 16 pages as a special section for Japanese creatives to speak with their hearts. What poured forth were not simply voices of Gaman, but a revelation of perhaps what world reports may have overlooked. To Fight is to struggle, endure, withstand, persevere against all odds. The choice may be to fight without loud discontent, but the quiet fight is not entered blind and more than just for the spirit of the fight, it is to fight for a cause. And here, rightly so, it is a fight with hope for greater things to come. Justin Long

Knowing the unknowable, his warm breath hovers over the ice.

ch a p t e r e l e v e n

NEIGHBOURHOOD N'11 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; NAPLES

QUARTIERI SPAGNOLI Text & Photography by Jeroen Pruijt

Naples is a city that is not easily summarized. Like a diamond in the rough, it has multiple facets ready to be revealed, each with its unique beauty. One of them is found every Sunday, early in the morningâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a secondhand market at the end of the city. Situated in the industrial heart of Naples with its entrance underneath a highway, surrounded by scrapyards, far from the city center, but unmistakably Napolitan, as you are welcomed by a strangely organized chaos. Cars parked sideways on what is supposed to be a sidewalk. There are self-initiated parking officers who ask for a little something after they appoint you a place to park your car. When paid, they draw a sign of approval in the dirt of your hood. Like parts of the city itself, the market is chaotic and dirty, yet there is an invisible force present that softly guides all life. Everything you see in Naples looks distressed and reused. That includes the broad variety of things sold and seen in the market and its surroundings. You would encounter the feeling that everything and everybody is in a constant battle with the elements. The market reflects the vibe that is found throughout the whole city. An unidentifiable and strangely attractive mix of chaotic life that is full of energy. Like 8

quartieri spagnoli

the market, the city is always buzzing, it makes you feel alive and eager to dive into their way of living. They say the real Napoli is found here in the Spanish Quarters of the city. In this neighborhood, the Napolitan language is most vivid and authentic. It is cautioned to avoid this area for it is here where the Napolitan mafia, the Camorra, have a lot of influence. Here you will find a neighborhood uninfluenced by worldly affairs, except maybe Maradona. In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit and Maradona, he is truly up there with the immortals, judging by the large presence of pictures and murals of their hero. A true Napolitan has an image of him in his house or shop. There are vendors who try to sell you anything to make a living. Everyone has a little business going on. You will find homeless people living on the streets. They have set up an economy of their own, which is illegal, and they are not entitled to stay anywhere with their goods. As soon as a patrolling police car is signaled, they flee like a flock of birds alarmed by a sign of danger, only to return to the exact spot minutes later. It is an endless cycle of action and reaction in their struggle and means to survive.

People dislike Naples for these reasons, for me it is why I love this place. Busy traffic makes the city feel alive. The heat drives everybody out of their homes and offices, creating a wonderful outside life that lasts till late at night. Most buildings show signs of a lost grandeur. Instead of trying to hold on to history, they let it be. You find a lot of broad streets with amazing beautiful architecture of the late 1800s and early 1900s. If you do explore the no-go areas, you would find the best restaurants where the most jaw dropping, mouth watering dishes and wine are served. The first impression of a true Napolitan might put you off, for they look at you as if you were the first stranger they have met. However, people are generally warm and if you ask them for directions, you will find passers-by joining you eventually. These are things that make people say, “see Naples and die.” It’s a city with its own character and one you would never stop exploring.

quartieri spagnoli

YOUR HAND IN MINE Text by Sy Chia Photography by Nick Simonite

Eleven years on, Explosions In The Sky have created music that runs as deep as the friendship between these four men.

Explosions In The Sky â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Your Hand In Mine (Goodbye) friday night lights soundtrack (2004)

your hand in mine

When you describe Explosions in the Sky, a few words come to mind: powerful, dynamic, raw and progressive. Some wonder at their strange ability to concoct tunes that draw people deep into the crevices of their thoughts, others find their music to be a power drug: a quick release of willpower and concentration. We have always played our part as listeners, waiting patiently for their next masterpiece of an album to be released. And how they take their time. Most intriguing are the men behind the music, who seem as elusively kept beneath their melodies as they have been from the tabloids. The four man band first met in a bar in Austin, Texas, after a recruiting poster was placed outside a record store reading, “Wanted: sad triumphant rock band”. They have had six epic studio albums and spectacular live shows across the world. The soul behind Explosions In The Sky tends to give people a deep sense of wonderment as to where such inspiration comes from. We were fortunate enough to chat with drummer Chris Hrasky to find out what drives them. “We just liked the idea of a band that there was not a leader or main songwriter, everyone collaborating and having their own say. I don’t think any of us want the sort of leader role, so a leaderless band is kind of the best option for us. I think our relationship has deepened over the years. We still have our ups and downs your hand in mine

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve shared our lives with each other, both the good and the bad.

your hand in mine

but we also know each other so well that we can anticipate how each one of us is going to respond to certain situations. We’ve shared our lives with each other, both the good and the bad. Whether it’s parents being sick, or relationships ending, or babies being born, we support each other like a family. In a lot of ways, we’re closer to each other than we are to our families,” Chris looks back on the unexpected friendship. Take Care, Take Care, Take Care, their latest album was released early this year—five years after their previous album. This is the essence of the band with the intensity of raw and melodic balladry intertwined with creative beats. Nothing short of their usual standard, with a dynamic scaling of ups and downs. It is an auditory feast of pure post-rock. We asked Chris about the things that inspire them and their take on composing, he says, “I guess our inspirations just comes from living. I wish I could give a more specific answer, but there really isn’t one. Ideas just sort of happen. And we all come up with song titles. There’s definitely not just one person who comes up with the titles or the concepts or anything like that. It’s very much a team effort.”

asked the question: when we work hard for something, do we want to achieve what we don’t have, or keep the things we treasure? To Explosions In The Sky, their struggles and momentous battles lie within the heart. The quietness of the mundane is more benevolent than the seemingly great endeavours. Eleven years on, Explosions In The Sky is defined by a troupe of men and their dedication to the purity of instrumental rock music, always striving for the need to venture into the unexplored and unspoken. And as they progress, they have brought insurmountable peace and depth to the ones who have experienced their works. As far as their music goes, the need to know and search, is where notes end and the soul begins.

Take Care, Take Care, Take Care, the latest album by Explosions In The Sky, is out in stores now.

Explosions In The Sky have always brought something new to the plate. Take Care, Take Care, Take Care is a six track album that sounds more amassed. Upon venturing deeper into the musicality, something poignant extends from within the chords— an intrinsic look into humanness, and the comfort of contentment. It’s as if we are your hand in mine

ON FAILED OMELETTES Text by Naz Sahin Photography by Serifcan Ozcan

Embracing the struggles in a journey to discover the inner necessity of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s art and perseverance for intuitive perfection.

on failed omelettes

I belong to a group of contemporaries who think highly of their grandparents. Unlike us kids, they bear a charm that enables them to manage their lives in an uncanny manner. All grown up and feeling on top of the world, we still idolize their formulas and creations, which have shaped our palates. My grandmother, Inci, is a gifted woman and she does what she knows better than anyone else. Inci’s empirical understanding of the private world that surrounds her owes itself to the wisdom of day-to-day routine and tradition. For the most part, this marvel is best conveyed through her cooking. She can hear the bubbles in a pot of boiling stock from the next room. Who never uses a scale, yet instinctively adjusts the flour to water ratio of flaky, delicate pastries. Who does not know what vinaigrette means, yet never fails to put out perfectly seasoned bowls of greens. Who has one cookbook that had been with her through the ages. Who is always so composed and punctual, never in doubt or showing the slightest hesitation, offering one plate after another to admiring guests. Beautiful plates, on which tasty morsels are casually arranged within principles of white space, contrast and asymmetry; concepts she has never heard

of. All Inci needs is common sense, patience and no-frills perfectionism. One summer morning, after hearing my plans to abandon my career, attend culinary school and spend the rest of my life in kitchens, Inci stared at me over a plate of fresh cheese, and asked, “Why would you want to do this to yourself?” I mumbled, at a loss about the fact that she was questioning my willingness to build upon my profound interest in her forte. To her, cooking was an inevitable tool to nourish and delight loved ones, a sincere and straightforward act carried out in the kitchen. The idea that her granddaughter would choose to embark on a journey through the brutal, grubby world of restaurant kitchens to feed strangers was confusing. She took the the decision as “a nice break from work.” A year later, in the very same kitchen, I was now a trained cook. Eager to cook perfect French omelettes for breakfast, I drove her out. Over the course of my attempt to do so, she anxiously peered through the small window overlooking the marble counter. In the end, my omelettes turned out sad, limp and over salted, bearing no resemblance to the ones I flipped over the school kitchen’s industrial burners. At the table, my

on failed omelettes

Rather than a hasty journey around the world, I choose to take leisure trips to my favorite places and spend enough time in each, till I figure out what they are all about.

husband pushed them from side to side, longing for Inciâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s glistening omelettes studded with herbs. They did not teach me how to make those omelettes at school. They taught me how much an egg weighs and how to tell its fresh. All the tips, to make perfect football shaped omelettes and fluffy scrambled eggs, to cook hard boiled eggs sous-vide and to not break the bĂŠarnaise sauce for my Benedict. Yet, that specific summer morning in the small kitchen of hers, I witnessed the memory of the countless shells I fearlessly broke fading away, and panic prevailing. In the months that followed, I managed to survive the perils of loud, crowded, heartless kitchens and retain my poise. I was sensible, hard working and quick-witted. I got things done, the way they needed to get done. Yet, most times when I had to cook for my own people, in the privacy of my own kitchen, I felt the need to hang tight to my common sense, as the familiar panic crawled into my head through notes and countless pages of cookbooks. Sometimes, in hopes of conveying one too many messages through my cooking, I lose grip. Whole fillets of sea bass sent to garbage after I decided it was better not to serve them to my friends on the hottest day of summer. (Pints of custard waiting

on failed omelettes

to become ice-cream went alongside.) Sleepless nights I spent, preparing rillettes, truffles and certain pies (for the first time) to offer my fellow colleagues over a Christmas dinner. Good memories were overshadowed by a patient wait for lousy plates that I sent out from my former boss’s stormed kitchen. Why I had not chosen to offer a tried and tested three course meal, instead of an amateur spread, I do not know. Strangely, the reminiscences of such fiascos are what cling to me the most. Details of shit hitting the fan—pans shattering, meat crackling, juices oozing, sinks overflowing, in all its picturesque glory haunt me till today, even after I realized that I should no longer throw away my pride for such experiments. Nowadays, when it comes to preparing dinner for people I love, I try not to get seduced by unexplored territories and instead, stick with what I know, learn partly from the great talents I had the chance to work alongside, but mostly from my own kin and traditions that I grew up with. Rather than a hasty journey around the world, I choose to take leisure trips to my favorite places and spend enough time in each, till I figure out what they are all about. That is what Inci always did and in a greater context, that is how chefs I admire never fail to inspire.

In his first letter to the young poet, Rainer Maria Rilke advises him, “...to keep growing, silently and earnestly, through your whole development; you couldn’t disturb it any more violently than by looking outside.” Letters To A Young Poet was given to me by a friend, who shared the same level of despair towards self-esteem as I. It is a great gift that I hold dear, and go back to every time I need a boost. “Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write?” I must cook. But that is not enough. Over time, I must cook what I know better than everyone else and understand that what I do not know matters little. Whether it is omelettes or not, I must cook the way my grandmother cooks, with know-how and grace.

on failed omelettes

Jóhann Jóhannsson – The Sun’s Gone Dim And The Sky’s Turned Black the sun’s gone dim and the sky’s turned black (2006)

jóhann jóhannsson

CONVERSATION N'7

— A conversation with the Icelandic composer on the moments that matter.

Growing up listening to an unusual combination of classical and rock music has opened Jóhann Jóhannsson to a musical world without restraints. Hence, Jóhann has found a special place for his music in between the simplicity and grandeur of timelessness. The contemporary classical artist composes through innovative recording techniques fused with an intimate approach, a personal sensitivity to sounds that possesses a curious ability to appease. He started out writing for theatre and over the years, evolved to creating scores for documentaries and films with a single motivation in mind—to move people with his music. Photography by James Underwood & AB photographer Karen Vandenberghe

jóhann jóhannsson

Hi Jóhann, how are you? Could you tell us what you have been up to recently? I’m releasing a soundtrack to my collaboration with filmmaker Bill Morrison called The Miners’ Hymns. It is kind of a requiem for the mining culture of North England. Working with this branch of England’s industrial heritage appealed to me and were in line with some themes I had worked with. We spent some time in North East England, Bill researching film archives and I was working with local musicians. We talked about the structure of the film and what visual materials Bill would concentrate on, but the music was written first. I didn’t see any finished edits until before the live performance in Durham Cathedral. Somewhere in between these, I am also finalizing mixes for an album of my recent film scores and making sketches for a new studio album. That sounds like a lot on your plate. While there are no fixed methods to composing, could you tell us about your working process? I don’t have a process, really. Ideas are rather indiscriminate about when and where they appear. I try to be mindful and awake enough to spot them. Once the idea is there, the rest is more left-brain work, a process of structuring and creating form. It’s like the difference between finding a gold mine and actual mining. It can be very quick and effortless or may take years—it’s down to luck or grace. The mining itself is something you approach in a very ordered way. The hardest part is starting a project with a blank page in front of you. There are several days of agony and feeling worthless to go through, before something happens. This stage is very important. Painful as it is, the subconscious is doing a lot of work and needs time to bring things to the surface. Each project has its own set of challenges, but I approach everything in a similar way, I don’t put a special hat on to do soundtracks 20

jóhann jóhannsson

and another one to do solo albums. I like having a variety of projects with different collaborators. The projects inform and influence each other. I guess it is also about being sensitive to the moments that matter. So, what is your personal favourite instrument to work with? I have an electric organ in my studio from the 70s, a Yamaha yc45d. It’s the same organ that the minimalist composer Terry Reilly used on his famous organ pieces. Please fill us in on the most memorable concert you have played. Probably when I played my piece, Virthulegu Forsetar in Hallgrims Church in Reykjavík. It was summer at midnight and the daylight changed slowly during the performance to a strange gloaming we get on summer nights. There was a helium balloon installation in the ceiling. During the hour-long performance, the balloons started to fall down in slow motion. They reacted to the volume of the music, so as the music got louder, more balloons fell down. Then the balloons bounced slowly between the church pews. It was completely unplanned. That sounds beautiful. What is your studio environment like? I work in a studio near my apartment, in a vibrant and busy part of Copenhagen. There are always things going on, but on the other hand, there is peace and quiet. I’ve never worked in very peaceful environments. I need the energy from a big city to function. Back in Reykjavík, I was living and working in the center of town. What keeps you going on a regular day basis? Good conversations. Good coffee. Good food. Running. Yoga. Occasional travel. Walking—I used to take long walks when I lived in Reykjavik. I worked in a studio near

the harbour and would walk home every evening along the sea to my home in the suburb of Seltjarnarnes. In the spring and autumn, the sunsets were spectacular. Being a veteran in the Icelandic music industry, would you say you helped shape the community? I think there are people I have influenced in Iceland and elsewhere. When Englabörn came out in 2001, there wasn’t anything around that sounded like it and this kind of music has a category now. I’m happy to have had a part in this. I think some of the work we did in Kitchen Motors was important and served as a kind of catalyst. How has the community grown from when you first started out?

It’s become more focused and professional. Young musicians are more clued-up on the business than I was when I started out. They already have managers and touring agencies after a few concerts. So maybe it lost the innocence and do-it-yourself spirit. On the other hand, a lot of great music is still being produced in Iceland. Please share with us, what is your fight? My fight is to affect people, to communicate with my music.

The Miners’ Hymns, the latest soundtrack by Jóhann Jóhannsson, is out in stores now.

jóhann jóhannsson

WHITE OUT

Text by Chauntelle Trinh Photographs courtesy of Darren Onyskiw

Darren Onyskiw pushes personal boundaries with an inborn passion and unwavering determination to create.

Decoder Ring â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 100 Suns they blind the stars, and the wild team (2009)

white out

It is a clear spring day in early March, a fresh layer of snow covers the rugged terrain of Mount Seymour, British Columbia, Canada. Around this time of year snow is abundant, frosting the mountain peaks with a pristine coat of white. Forty-five minutes from the city of Vancouver is the apex of Brockton Point, which overlooks the city from 1300 meters above sea level. Off-trail, the region is regarded as backcountry, a harsh wilderness marked by towering rock faces and old growth firs and cedars. On a crisp, subzero morning Darren Onyskiw treks upwards into the mountains, through snow and ice, the load on his back heavy with equipment. Each step is a feat. Snowshoes weigh down his feet but are necessary to forge through snow, steel crampons he must also bring to navigate ice. The possible threat of an avalanche and alpine weather make the task all the more difficult. Mother Nature is unpredictable and fatalities are not uncommon. Except for a few distant birds, Darren is utterly alone. After hiking more than three kilometers, he arrives at Brockton Point settling on a spot near a gullet just off the main trail. In the silent midst of white and wilderness, he throws down his gear and gets ready. In diligent form, his mind is on auto-pilot and his body follows, surveying, measuring and marking out a shape in the snow. Then, he begins to dig.

This is his fourth return to the mountains since the winter began. Each time has been like a quest, a mission to create what he refers to as Snow Negatives. For almost three decades, Darren has worked as an architect, designing and constructing houses and interiors for private clients. The son of a self-taught builder and landscaper, Darren continued this tradition of constructivism in his life and work. Architectural practice, generally satisfying for those with a natural aptitude and ardor for design, demands long working hours, and the practicalities of running a business can leave the imaginative spirit weary. Architecture itself has its own distinct set of limitations. To counterbalance this, he has committed himself to also producing art. Art allows him to investigate his theories and delve into territory outside of the pragmatic sphere of architecture and design. Artistic ideas manifested into form and installations manipulated by light, form and materials. Despite the many struggles he has had to endure through the years, his love for creation sustains his faith, giving him the strength to persevere. “Some of us are born with a resonant desire to create. It drives us. There’s a passion from within, a mechanism that is not necessarily mechanical.” He says, “We are born to execute, to make.” As he digs, the shape scored into the powdery white canvas sinks gradually downwards. A circular ring, a meter in width and five meters in diameter is being white out

This is what I love about nature and this workâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it lives, it mutates. You can't control it, it is changing all the time.

white out

excavated out of the snow bed with genius precision. Darren continues to dig, stopping only to eat and drink. Mother Nature waits for no one. If left for even a few hours, the weather can change and the texture of the snow will be different from one side to the other. The works must be made in one arduous push. Eight hours on, the temperature falls to −6 degrees Celsius. Darren has been digging by headlamp for the past hour and a half. He climbs out of the rounded trench, now 2.2 meters deep, and gathers his things for the long trek back into darkness. Upon his return the following day, he discovers that half a meter of snow has fallen overnight, softening the sharp lines of his ground sculpture, but not enough to erase it. A look of serene delight enters his face, “This is what I love about nature and this work—it lives, it mutates. You can’t control it, it is changing all the time.” He removes the contents of his pack and prepares once again to dig. Apart from the rhythmic crunching sounds of snow, there is only dense silence. The ceaseless repetitive motion of shaping snow induces a trance-like state. The carving is without additions or repairs, thus every shaving by the shovel has to be controlled, regardless of the physical strain of digging, lifting, and throwing. One can only wonder about his source of endurance and determination.

Late into the evening, Snow Negative no.4 is complete. Darren, exhausted but content, removes the glove on his right hand to inspect a finger that has frozen numb. The completion of each Snow Negative has left him physically debilitated for days. Aching muscles, hypothermia and dehydration have all been side effects. Luckily, the frostbitten finger managed to thaw after ten days. In the meantime, Darren has debated whether or not attempting such a difficult venture is worth losing a finger. The short response is yes. The Snow Negative series is a culmination of all his years dedicated to practice and learning. What started out as a simple investigation into “how to imagine a non-architecture closest to invisible thought” has now turned into a very committed undertaking. “I think I have finally come to understand something. It is a new direction for me, a whole new way of seeing and doing things,” he says. In 2004, three years after the death of his father, he took time off to travel back to Japan and to live in Kyoto to study the Zen garden. “My question then was why a body of white gravel could provoke quiet, silence, inward thought, inner discovery, mysticism. I realize much of what I am doing now comes from researching the essential characteristics and construct of the Zen garden. I want to create space, contemplation spaces, away from known certainties and known associations. white out

white out

My interest in architecture now is no longer material. As architects and as a society we are forced towards answers that are concrete. We design what pleases clients by satisfying them with images. Images are all over the internet and we are over saturated by them. They lose their meaning, so it’s time to move into another direction, to create something more spiritual. The Snow Negatives are ethereal. They are about a transparency in architecture that is not about using glass and slim fittings. They are made of air. I carve, there is no pollution, no by-product and the finished form mutates. The pieces are silent, nature renders them quiet. Most architecture built today is not in context. It is there to be noticed, for show. The better examples create an atmosphere that we can learn from. I am excited about my position. It’s like I am entering a void. A conscious awakening is taking place and I am moving outside the institution of images and concrete. I feel like I’m at the front door of a new hyper dimension even though I don’t have the tools in front or behind me. How do you describe such a space?” Several weeks later, Darren is on the top of a snow covered cliff molding snow into rods. This recent undertaking seeks to explore snow’s materiality, there is a technique in molding snow that can only be understood through practice. At first the rods break

and collapse, but before the day is out, a multitude of snow rods stand firmly staked into the ground. The Japanese principle of gambaru, meaning to persevere, to persist, to never give up, describes Darren’s dedication and optimistic approach to his work. Could these explorations contribute a future understanding for art and architecture in the creation of space, using nature in its purest, allowing it to determine what can and cannot be fashioned? Visitors approaching Snow Negative no.4 ascertain the artificial intervention in the landscape, but one that is calm, beautiful and unexpected. They enter via a tunnel four meters long hidden beside a cluster of trees. It is less than a meter round and except for a faint luminance, the tunnel has no distinct end. Self-discovery is a condition of entry. The experience can cause either panic or elation. Emerging from the tunnel the passage divides sideways and opens towards the sky. Walking steadily within the curved ring, looking up, and touching its icy walls, breathing in the newness of feeling as the senses take over. It is an experience impossible to capture in any media. “What will they feel in their bodies? What do they see in their eyes? These are questions that continue to fascinate me.”

white out

SPACE UNDERSCORE

BEYOND A SPACE IN TIME

the space advertorial

Awaiting aesthetes and the lifestyle savvy in Asia is a new space dedicated to creating a life without compromise. Braced to set a benchmark in contemporary lifestyle furniture is the 40,000 square feet Space Asia Hub showroom located at 77 Bencoolen Street, Singapore.

With a philosophy built on design and believing that the quality of the purchase should match the experience in all of their design stores, Space has managed to grow from strength to strength to retain the leading position in luxury contemporary furniture retail through its past ten years in Singapore. Since the launch of its first showroom in Sydney in 1993 and its Singapore showroom in 2001, the company, has developed into South East Asia’s largest retailer for contemporary designs, representing the most number of top-tier European furniture companies in Asia. Even during financial turmoil, Space continued to promote design that was in line with their philosophy by initiating activities like design workshops by Japanese designer Hiromichi Konno, who had collaborated with Danish brand Fritz Hansen on the RIN chair. A key milestone was the fit-out of more than 2,000 wardrobes across developments in premium Orchard Road and Sentosa Cove precincts.

In recognition of the growth potential, an investment of sgd50 million was made in acquiring and remodeling a conservation property located along Bencoolen Street, the Civic district area near the design precinct in Singapore, to build the revolutionary hub. It will be divided into three distinct yet conjoined blocks. Two conservation buildings—a bungalow and a shophouse, flanking a main contemporary design block, which will provide a visual treat with its multiple level displays visible from street level. “This was a unique opportunity to collaborate on the creation of a significant contemporary addition to our city’s collection of heritage sites and revisit some of the common themes of how best to enhance the use and spatial appreciation of our conserved buildings,” says Mr Chan Ee Mun, Senior Associate of WOHA and architect of Space Asia Hub on the design strategy of playing up contrasts between old and new.

the space advertorial

Beyond the tumult lies the terra nova.

ch a p t e r t w e lv e

ISHINOMAKI — Photographer Taisuke Koyama’s documentation of a new reality in the aftermath of destruction.

Taisuke Koyama has brought a new dimension of the world unseen by the naked eye. He makes pictures with his entirety at work—mind, body and soul, connecting elements of the extremes from his surroundings. Perhaps his education in environmental studies may explain his perspective. His subjects vary from macro and microorganisms to rustic walls and advertising posters. He lets them inspire him, before reinventing their form to an organic finish, often like a family of cells with unexpected textures and explosive colours. It may seem as though he photographs and believes in the things that may or may not exist. As a result, he is able to seek the imagination of his viewers to complete his vision and a new reality is born. Taken in June at Ishinomaki, Miyagi, these photographs represent the impact of the 9.0m richter earthquake and resulting tsunami on March 11th 2011. Each image is a novel of its own, a documentation of an unknown strength and power coming to surface. Photography by Taisuke Koyama

Yasushi Yoshida – Grateful Goodbye grateful goodbye (2010)

ishinomaki

BIG SUR Text & Photography by Ryan Simon

A reflection on the perseverance of a landscape unthreatened by the odds of its survival, it evolves into a beauty stronger than before.

For Stars â&#x20AC;&#x201C; There Was A River we are all beautiful people (2001)

big sur

To date, the Basin Complex Fire is the eighth largest wildfire in the state of California since steady data was collected. The fire burned 162,818 acres of land, took fifty-eight structures, but spared all human life. Wildfires affect wildlife based on the following factors: when it occurs, at what frequency, to what extent, type of burn complexity, length of burn duration, and intensity of energy released during the fire. Consider now that wildlife holistically includes an intricate complex genetic make-up of plants, animals and soils that culminate into a single universal being, we can even consider our own interactions with this wildlife to be a sum of the parts. Now compare this entity to the complex make-up of a human being. When something happens to a human, he or she is affected by similar factors. The following and its corresponding images examines a region in Big Sur, California through a particular point of change anchored from a singular perspective in an attempt to shift our views of landscape art, one that traditionally gives us wide views with distinct composition. She deserves this after all. The expressions in typical landscape art tend to silo the landscape and its surroundings into one part of a big sur

She was untouched through my eyes, wise and formed but free from pain.

big sur

mass scale, something unobtainable, with limited relational connection but of course there will always be reasons to capture them as such. For these very reasons we have millions of unique shots of life on earth, some breathtaking, some astounding, some banal yet unfortunately they can only take us to a certain playing field in the mind. They are technically remarkable, but conjure visions of a new product when it arrives untouched from the factory. We make these choices when examining landscape because it has been repeated, embraced and understood. Discover, climb, look, frame, and shoot at a particular time of day and one will achieve this remarkable image. This is technique and what she asks is that you embrace her as a life form. She breathes. The attempt here is to examine landscape in a more human and universal context. Landscape does not intend to be the most breathtaking image that is achievable from a vista, because when it is examined closer, it begs for us to allow ourselves to be reflected through it. When examining the character and connection to a landscape it is more appropriate to look at twenty poignant shots from the surrounding vista rather than a single image. How has it been affected, how is it changing, is it young, growing, dying, what does its future hold? Are there hopes and

dreams on the floor or ceiling? When we examine a life form we look at its span from birth to death, of course nature will have a more cyclical quality but that does not mean that one hill is strong and the other is weak, just as I am right handed, the mountain may favor one side too. The wind takes hold, the sun interacts, and often times certain tragedy has to be responded to and built back up from. In 2007 I met the landscape of Big Sur for the first time, upon my first examination it was powerful and delicate at the same time. She was untouched through my eyes, wise and formed but free from pain. On June 20th 2008, lightning struck the earth in central California and ignited what would be the first of over 1,700 fires through the month of July across the state. Soon after the first fire was ignited, the Basin Complex Fire of 2008 in Monterey County, home to Big Sur, was also ignited by a lightning strike. As the fire burned rapidly through the Padre National Forest, it gained speed, agility, and strength. On July 3rd, 2008 the Basin Complex was upon Big Sur in full force. She ached. Despite the efforts of the many seasonal fire fighters sent to battle the fire, of which nearly half; particularly big sur

those on the front lines were prison inmates, the fire roared dangerously close to landmarks and historical institutions in the region. Many local residents and business owners shook off warnings and stayed behind to protect their homes and businesses from large embers that fell from the sky over the coming days. Even a group of local monks from the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center stayed deep in their forest to defend their quarters. The battle between wildfire fighters, residents and the blaze ragged through the holiday weekend of Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s independence for seven days and finally Big Sur was safe, but not without a price. She rested. Months later after roads, trails and campgrounds were re-opened, I ventured up a side road in search of a campsite in the middle of Big Sur. Winding left and right along the unprotected cliffside road, my allies and I took in the staggering Pacific Ocean views from unexpected heights. Further above me were fog embankments, thick as clouds. Soon I would travel through them and during this time the maximum distance that I could see was two to three feet in front of the vehicle. Rising higher and higher with each turn I was deeper and deeper in the forest. Finally, I rose above the thick fog embankment, which revealed many of the images you see printed here. It was this 46

big sur

moment when I realized, this was not just a vista, this was a life form. Something that had changed, felt and understood that visitors were upon its grounds. She had something to say, as I wiped the mist from my windshield and looked down on the living breathing ecosystem that engulfed me. It was here that she showed her true colors. She bore an intricate mix of decay, growth and re-growth from the recent blaze. She was not giving up despite the pain, she showed clear signs of the fight strewn across the vast battlefield and yet somehow all of this together at once was more breathtaking than any landscape I could imagine. She limped on one foot but waged ahead on the other. A myriad of emotions struck me at this point, she had changed and would change again. The cycle observed in a single gaze is the great revenge, Nacimientoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Revenge, one beginning, one ending, one deep in the middle stage of life. The fire took its revenge and then she took hers. I felt something to be expressed in this region of Big Sur beyond a transcendent vista and to this day I continue to photograph, learn, and grow together with this landscape.

big sur

ABOVE AND BEYOND — Photographer Stephan Zirwes portrays a different side of the world through aerial landscapes.

Hanging out of a helicopter, Stephan Zirwes questions our reality while the world is presented to him on a platter. He searches for patterns, structures, connections, uniformities and contrasts, is that a cornfield or a doormat? A bird’s eye view is more than a fascination, it is an opportunity to show things hidden from daily life. Flagged by highways, railway tracks, rivers and canals, the Ruhr region was documented to show old ruins of forgotten places, revealing stories of history. Known worldwide during the second world war, it was where coal mines once cooked steel to dominate the region. Today, everything has changed. Old industrial coal mines have disappeared with only a few huge ruins left standing. Photography by Stephan Zirwes

Cecilia Eyes – The Departure here dead we lie (2010)

above and beyond

title here

NEIGHBOURHOOD N'12 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; BASEL

BREITE Text by Lilia Rusterholtz & Alex Erath Photography by Xenia Wiederkehr

There are two ways to start: climb in slowly or jump. Either way, seconds later you will find yourself between a medieval quarter on the left and a Bauhaus industry complex on the right. When you turn slightly you will catch sight of a reddish building, the Tinguely museum. But take care to get out of the way of the old wooden ferry connecting two banks of the river you are swimming in: the Rhine in Basel. You can continue, the ever changing scenery passing by, but always keep in mind that you will have to walk all the way back to where you left your belongings. The best place to start your swim is the public river bath, locally known as Rhybadhysli Breiti. Built in 1898, it originally served as a public bath, of course with separate days of usage for men and women. Two times, the iron structure was about to be demolished and it was only due to civil initiatives collecting both money and political goodwill that it still exists.

breite

Some things, like the changing rooms and the steel structure, are still in their original state. Yet the relatively new holders of the cafĂŠ-bar have managed to give the place a neoteric ambience. Despite being probably the most beautiful place in Basel, it is never overcrowded and always keeps a familiar atmosphere by focussing on the important things in life: good coffee, good ice-cream and a spacious view. If you went for a long swim and walked all the way back, you should dive into the ever cool water again to refresh. And then, when every part of your body feels chilly, you can stretch out on the sun deck to warm up. You might read one of the provided papers or a magazine or just soul dangle. And if you stay till dusk, the coloured light chains will complete the miraculous setting. But maybe you just want to go for another swim. This time, you should jump!

breite

ADAPT OR DIE Text by Sharon Leisinger Photographs courtesy of Sony & Studio Babelsberg AG

The tale of a girl’s journey from isolation into an unknown world in search of freedom and self.

Sitting on either side of a small fire, dressed in furs, Hanna listens to Erik as he reads to her from an old encyclopedia. “What does music feel like?” “Music. The combination of sounds with a view to beauty of form and expression of emotion.” “I want to hear it for myself.” “We have all we need right here.” “It’s not enough. I’m ready, papa, I’m ready.” The Chemical Brothers – Devil Is In The Details hanna soundtrack (2011)

adapt or die

Raised in an isolated log cabin within the arctic forest with only the barest of necessities, sixteen year old Hanna longs to discover

the world she has only learned about through her father and a Grimm’s Fairy Tales book left behind by a mother she was too young to remember. She spends all her days training intensively in extreme physical endurance, combat, hunting, shooting and mastering multiple languages. All for the day she finally decides to “flip the switch” and set in motion a fight for survival. So begins this action thriller with arthouse aesthetics that sets out on a fast paced cross continental journey of vastly different landscapes, inspired by a backpacking trip the film’s scriptwriter undertook at age nineteen. From a harsh desert in North Africa, to a bustling street in Morocco, to a crowded camping site in Spain and finally to Berlin; the gritty subway and a gloomy

abandoned amusement park. Hanna must escape this story’s wicked witch figure, Marissa Wiegler, who with her perverse whistling henchman will not rest until either one of them is dead. Driven by his love for action movies and epic journeys, Seth Lochhead wrote this script six years ago during his time at Vancouver Film School. The fairy tale undertones and symbolism reminiscent of Brothers Grimm that lace this movie are visual interpretations of director Joe Wright, who grew up watching fairy tale performances in his parents’ puppet theater in London. Another big influence on Wright are the twisted fairy tales of filmmaker David Lynch. To him, fairy tales are not sweet stories and do not have happy endings, as modern day usage of adapt or die

the term fairy tale endings suggests. They are dark cautionary tales, meant to impart morals and prepare children for obstacles. Wright chose to challenge himself with this action film because of his attraction to the story and its characters. We see the look of reluctance from an otherwise emotionally withholding father when he realises his daughter has chosen to leave their safe seclusion, or the control freak villain tasting the blood on her gums after obsessively flossing her perfect teeth by a bathroom counter filled with terrifying dental instruments. Small insights into the characters allow viewers to fill in the gaps with their own experiences and emotions, to better understand and hopefully empathise with them. Another memorable aspect of this visually stunning film would have to be its escape and fight scenes. Each set in distinctly different scenarios with perfectly stylised, captivating choreography and adrenaline pumping electronic tracks by The Chemical Brothers. Cue Hanna running through the concrete tunnels of an underground facility, white lights flashing in pulsating unison to 62

adapt or die

the trance inducing beat as the scene goes into a kaleidoscopic spin. Wright cites the choreography and staging of the pickpocketing sequence in Robert Bressonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s The Pickpocket as a big influence on the fight scenes in Hanna. With brilliant fight choreographer, Jeff Imada, he shot Eric Banaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s underground fight scene in one long stedicam shot, a case of necessity, having only one day and a limited budget to shoot. Wright also uses music on different levelsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; when Hanna first hears a call to prayer in Morocco or fiery rhythms of Flamenco in Spain and terrifying Nutcracker music in the house of Wilhelm Grimm. Being a long time friend and groupie of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons of The Chemical Brothers, Wright approached them to write the score for Hanna. This resulted in a clever blending of sound effects and music in precisely chosen moments. Essentially, the heart of this movie is about a child in search of self and freedom. And it is this journey, we all can relate to. Depicting the transitioning from child to adulthood, Hanna shows signs of her true age and innocence in her reactions to unfamiliar yet

ordinary things and situations she is confronted with since leaving her safe shelter in the wilderness. This side of her is in stark contrast to her unflinching attitude towards much more terrifying encounters. It is the extraordinary talent of Saorise Ronan, transformed into pale faced and light haired Hanna, subtly reflecting both coldness and vulnerability in her eyes, that captivates us. As Lochhead believes, the hero and villain relationship resides in Hanna. Erik and Marissa are characterisations, visualisations of Hanna’s warring halves. They too have their own struggles, with their own hero and villains warring inside. Ultimately, his conception of them is that they are human. We experience the world through Hanna’s eyes, which is all the more intriguing for she has grown up away from civilisation with what Wright mentions as an adult consciousness but the naïveté of a child. She possesses an otherworldly, almost godly character that gives a subjective, fresh view of the world.

experiences a series of firsts—her first friend, first date and first kiss. She is completely taken by this concept of a family, forming an instant bond with their daughter. The two girls could not be more different, Sophie is a product of her culture and conditioned in a different way as Hanna, but they are both teenage girls in search of their identity. The juxtaposition of Sophie and Hanna or Sophie and her feminist mother Rachel came about through Wright’s exploration of what it means to be a woman in today’s cultural climate. Despite Hanna’s affinity with this family, she recognises that in order to protect them she must leave them. Hanna’s intention to find herself, love and human kindness are reflections of her humanity and purity. Much like the fairy tales The Little Mermaid or Hansel and Gretel, she leaves home, goes into the world, encounters dark forces and overcomes them. In the end, we are convinced that the final look in her eyes is not that of a ruthless assassin but a girl fighting for her survival.

As she chances upon an unconventional, eccentric travelling family, we see a more humorous and warm side of Hanna as she adapt or die

MARTELL UNDERSCORE

PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY Young people wielding dslr cameras are a common sight in Singapore, as are photographic exhibitions on the city streets, within malls and in the growing number of art galleries and schools. One of the catalysts to inspire the appreciation, creativity and excellence in the local field of photography is a homegrown festival called the Month of Photography Asia. Since 2001, it has evolved to become a platform showcasing works by internationally renown, as well as established and emerging regional and local photographers. In partnership with this event, Martell Cordon Bleu plays host to its second installation of ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu, a premier photography exhibition and competition to recognize the most outstanding artist in Singapore. Eight established photographers, nominated by a distinguished panel of experts had their works showcased to the public in May 2011. A separate jury of prominent local and international figures then chose three finalists. We speak to this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu winner, who at age 26, happens to be the youngest nominee, about his very personal photographic journey through his series Homework and Method.

the martell advertorial

Congratulations, Sean! How do you feel about winning the ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu 2011 award, and what do you think made the judges choose you and your photographs? I am absolutely delighted to have won the ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu award. I was really over the moon when I found out. Perhaps the judges chose me because the photographs in my series Homework and Method were intimate, and also because I capitalised on certain aspects of photography that have been overlooked for awhile now, such as photography’s capacity as a healing device and as a comedic tool. Tell us more about this series of photographs of your family members titled Homework? How did you arrive at the concept and what was the process like? It is hard to know exactly how I arrived at the concept of my Homework series. The truth is you never know. My time in the school of theology had been very inspiring and I think it’s largely then that I first developed the idea of Homework. Ideas and inspirations are in my opinion a divine mystery. The process of my work has been wonderful. There is a kind of quiet delight in photographing the members of my family. In many ways, it has made life at home a

little less mundane and uneventful. I do different things with my family members in this work. Sometimes, I use them to say something about my thoughts on faith, desires and fears. Other times, I just want to make them touch each other, which is something that is very new to us. Like the time when I made my parents hug each other. That was the first time I ever seen them being so physically intimate. It was pure joy for me. And then there are times when I make them do completely weird and crazy things so that we can all laugh together. That to me is one of the most magical things, making comedy with the camera. What do you hope to do or say with your photographs? I think the only kinds of work worth doing are the ones that we are utterly concerned about, with or without photography. I use the medium of photography as a way to confront my immediately reality, of people or stories that are intimate to me. I want to make pictures that allow my loved ones and me to return to life with a little more tenderness and a little more passion. What about photography inspires you? What inspires me in photography is the element of the martell advertorial

magic—an otherworldly quality that doesn’t shout out at you, but creeps up upon you and leaves your breath hanging. It’s a strange sensation really. You feel like you are on the edge of something and about to fall. I think that I have a lot of that when I look at the work of Diane Arbus and of Joel-Peter Witkin, and of course Roger Ballen. Tell us about your experience exhibiting abroad and how the response has been? My experience exhibiting abroad has been great. I think at the end of the day, the best thing that photography can give you are people and places, and exhibiting abroad has allowed me to experience both and I really can’t ask for more. I have made many wonderful friends and have been to many beautiful places through the process of exhibiting my works. I think if I weren’t doing photography, my life would have been entirely different. I would have missed out on many, many wonderful things.

the martell advertorial

ICON DE MARTELL CORDON BLEU Dedicated to inspiring creativity, independence and the pursuit of excellence, Martell Cordon Bleu presents ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu, a premier photography prize to recognise the most outstanding artist in Singapore. By creating an inspirational platform through the award, ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu honours artists who have shown originality of vision, presented thought provoking ideas and demonstrated commitment to art through the use of photography.

icon de martell cordon bleu 2011 finalists

John Clang

Zhao Renhui

the martell advertorial

The city gathers, a coming together of the fold.

ch a p t e r t h i rt e e n

Yann Tiersen â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Summer 78 good bye lenin! soundtrack (2003)

an ethereal beauty

AN ETHEREAL BEAUTY Text by Rose Mulready Photography by James Braund, Lynette Wills & Lisa Tomasetti

There is no secret behind the curtains of an unworldly grace, but a lifelong dedication to the art of perfection.

Ballet is an ethereal art, effervescent, otherworldly. And demanding. Classical dancers must give themselves early to discipline; most start as children, often as young as three or four, and as adolescents must decide on their careers and throw themselves headlong into their training. Ballet shapes its disciples. Children who pursue this muse into adulthood grow differently. Their hips turn out, they develop long muscles and supple spines. Professional dancers can often seem like a breed apart, as different from regular mortals as a Siamese cat from a street moggie. They are slender, flexible, sculpted, with proud necks and floating hands. They seem to tread the earth lighter than the rest of us. When they take to the stage, they change the laws of physics. They freeze time to hang at the top of a leap. They drift over the floor like mist. When a man lifts a woman, she seems suddenly weightless. Watching them is like gaining a secret glimpse into a graceful dimension. an ethereal beauty

There is a hearteningly prosaic flipside to all this unearthly perfection. That fluttering sylph comes off stage to stick her feet in an ice bucket, and that magnificent prince wipes off his make-up and rugs up for the bike ride home. Consider, for instance, the pointe shoe: a quasi-fetish object with pale perfect satin and sinuous ribbons. Ballerinas prepare for wear by taking to them with Stanley knives and pliers; they slam them in doors, paint their insides with shellac and burn the ends of the ribbons. Some put dishcloths inside to cushion the toes. Classical dancers work hard, and form tight-knit communities. Their studios smell of sweat. Even though a company works together closely, and performs for audiences, a dancer’s artistic path is in some ways a lonely one. It’s an endless conversation between them and the mirror, a constant calibration of head and arms and neck and the angle of a leg. In ballet, it’s called line—the shape you make, and its quality. A good line sings. A bad one is like a bum note. 72

an ethereal beauty

It’s an endless conversation between them and the mirror, a constant calibration of head and arms and neck and the angle of a leg.

an ethereal beauty

Morning class (the routine that Mikhail Baryshnikov once described as, “boring, awfully boring!”) is the steady metronome of a classical dancer’s existence. Every class has variations—the music played, the way enchainments (sequences of steps) are put together by the teacher, the focus on different aspects of technique, but at its heart it’s the same all over the world: work at the barre to warm up the body, particularly the feet and ankles and hips; a move to the floor for adage (slow work to perfect balance); and then the fireworks—leaps and turns that give stamina and brio. In modern companies it’s supplemented by Pilates and gym work, but morning class remains the core of the ballet world. Virtually unchanged since the 19th century, using French terms the world round, class is such a lingua franca that dancers can walk into a foreign company and know at once what to do. For the ballet lover, watching dancers in the studio is a pleasure at least as great as watching them on stage. As if in reaction to 74

an ethereal beauty

the studied elegance of their stage looks, dancers in class or rehearsal adopt a slouchy, dishevelled, tattered aesthetic (in which, incidentally, they look no less elegant). One leg warmer to coddle a sore muscle, torn and layered T-shirts, tracksuit pants, oversize fleece all-in-ones reminiscent of a Teletubby —it only serves to emphasise their grace. To watch them as they work together to master a tricky lift, or stand alone before the mirror to try a pirouette, and then try it again, and again, and again, is to see the grind behind that grace, and to understand a little of what it takes to transcend earthly limits.

THE IMPERMANENT PICTURES Text & photography by Caspar Newbolt

The transience of memories living within people are precious for they can never truly be immortalized.

At the end of the 1982 science fiction film Blade Runner, the replicant Roy Batty delivers a profound and lasting statement. He talks of the loss of experiences, memories and moments that occurs when someone dies. After all you certainly don’t just lose the person, you lose a completely unique perspective both on your life and the lives of countless others. An irreplaceable recording of details seemingly too obscure or trivial to write down or photograph. Quite how trivial is all relative of course. What of the tears no one saw quietly forming at the corner of the eyes that looked through the camera that photographed you being born? What of the rip in the dress on the person holding that camera, or the fight nine months before that caused that rip? The big scene. The making up. The kiss. The sex. Trivial to some, but probably not to you.

Max Richter – Infra 5 infra (2010)

My father’s parents are in their late 80s. They have led long and varied lives. They lived through and took part in the last world war. They have lost a son to drugs. They took in the children of their lost boy and had to raise them themselves. My grandmother was one of the women who helped decode the German invented Enigma machines at the impermanent pictures

the impermanent pictures

Bletchly Park in England, during the second world war. She kept this secret for so long that she still refuses to talk about it. My grandfather, I have always known as a book binder with vast collections of leather bound books in his attic. It was only recently, after his accident, that I discovered it is to him that I owe the talent I have for graphic design. He ran a design studio in Covent Garden similar to mine. They live now in Norfolk, England. These photographs I took last December, when my father, brother and I took a day trip up to see them to exchange Christmas gifts. They live in the same house we have visited them in throughout my whole life. A house that of course seems smaller, colder and damper now than it ever did then. The village around the house is full of echoes of us as children, kicking a football around endlessly, and taking long walks to the cold, pebbly beach across the marshes. My grandfather fell down the stairs a while back and broke his neck. He survived. My grandmother looks after him now for the most part. She canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t drive. There is a bus once a week that takes her from the village to the town. She remains, aside from my

father, the only person in my family who I still receive handwritten letters from. To my great detriment I do not always write back, and often think that if they had email it would be easier. The science fiction novel Dune tells of a future where we have found a drug that allows us to awaken the memories of our elders within our own minds. Pacing up and down my studio whilst thinking about how to end this piece of writing, I realized that sitting down to write a hand-written letter to my grandparents and booking a flight to see them was in fact the best way to end it. Writing an email was science fiction to those who wrote Blade Runner and Dune, yet the larger focus of their work was always on understanding and coping with loss. We must strive to remember that it is human loss that is profound and that art and technology are simply the vessels required to remind us of this. I hope these photographs are testament to that.

the impermanent pictures

NEIGHBOURHOOD N'13 – LISBON

BAIXA Text & photography by Annett Bourquin (ANVE)

baixa

“This one is called rabo de bacalhau (literally the butt of a codfish),” says the old man pointing at the black chair he just sat on. “See how the extension of the seat is receiving the backrest bars? But this is nothing, just a simple farmer’s chair.” In front of it stands an old wooden table, the man’s reading glasses lie on a phone book dated 1996. A mahogany headboard leans against the table, on the bed an oversized mattress, beyond doubt a model from the 1970s. Fluorescent tubes fight for light. “I came to this place in 1947, and have been here ever since. I’m from the North, but my wife doesn’t like it there, she prefers the big city. I specialised in period furniture—French, Italian, all solid wood and not a chip of particle board!”

He is delighted to tell us his story, filled with passion, saints, and the sea. Immaculate outlines of tools indicate where his workshop used to be. Sunlight shimmers through the near blind glass panes. A wooden cut-off and three Dutch chairs, form a makeshift window display with a jumble of wooden ornaments, brass handles and key holes. An old lady with red lipstick steps through the opened front door, elegantly dressed in a pale blue suit. She takes a seat on the rabo de bacalhau. “This house will be turned into a hotel, so it’s time to move on. But until they start rebuilding, we will come here everyday.” Lisbon time has a texture of its own. It is not fragmented into days, hours, or even minutes. It is measured by lifetime.

baixa

THE BOX MAN Text & photography by Leonardo Pellegatta

Uncovering alikeness in the impermanent houses and the invisible lives of those surviving on the streets of Japan.

Birdy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Shelter birdy (2011)

the box man

01 A solitary box below the subway rail tracks. 02 Sumida box: morning service with breakfast and cat. 03 The box inn: living room and sofa along the river. 04 A solid, semi-permanent box crafted with firm

plywood and other found materials.

“Here is the city of the box-men, anonymity is a must, and any residency permission is released upon the strict condition of being no one.” — Kobo Abe, Hako Otoko Ueno Park, Tokyo is known for being the homeground for temporary cardboard houses for decades. Kobo Abe’s mysterious novel starts in Ueno, with an official report of the police forcing the homeless people to relocate from the park in the 1970s. After moving to Japan, I decided to visit the park one day to explore the stories of The Box Man. My first meeting was with a fine man from Hokkaido. With surprise, I found myself having a spontaneous conversation in English after long time. Another man from Kyushu kindly introduced me to his fellows camping in the park. I could not help but notice how intensely they hold themselves together and keep their place clean and organized. These “invisible” residents unfold their cardboard houses to rest at night and refold them every morning. In a silent compromise with the authorities, they are also in charge of cleaning and removing the old leaves, in order to preserve the green harmony of the park. Moving towards Asakusa, following upstream the Sumida, Arakawa and Edo rivers, I discovered a sea of semi-permanent cardboard accommodations (sometimes improvised with found materials), forming a secret city. Futon, simple cooking facilities and a primitive form of electricity are often available. Occasionally, a small orchard is grown. During the warm season, a romantic isolated “temporary house” is located under a cherry tree in full bloom. In spite of the hardship of living and surviving on the streets, a unique aspect of homelessness in Japan is that no one begs for money, food or help. Focusing on shacks and isolated shelters, I sense that a house is our primordial need as human beings.

the box man

A Collection of Wooden Furniture by Nathan Yong

www.folksfurniture.com

Kuala Lumpur Milan New Zealand Paris Singapore United States

Gudang Damansara Sdn Bhd · S15 2 ND Flr Bangsar Shopping Ctr, 285 Jln Maarof, KL 59000, Malaysia · Tel: +603 20922721 · www.gudanghome.com · info@gudanghome.com.my Daisen Concept · DAISEN concept Via Imbriani 74/76 · Tel: +39 327 9160401 · www.daisendesign.it · info@daisendesign.it Haus Mobel, 147 Thorndon Quay, Wellington 6011 · Tel: 04 232 9505 La Boutique Danoise · 264, Boulevard Saint Germain 75007 Paris · Tel: +33 142394840 · www.laboutiquedanoise.com · infos@laboutiquedanoise.com Grafunkt! · 85 Playfair Road · Tong Yuan Industry Building #02-01 · www.grafunkt.com · jk@grafunkt.com Design Within Reach · www.dwr.com

GARDENS CONTAINED AND FLOATING Text by Lauren Palmor Photography by Annelie Bruijn

The resilience of plants has allowed man to create works of art through the exercise of imagination and experimentation.

“Half the interest of a garden is the constant exercise of the imagination.” — Mrs. C.W. Earle, Pot-pourri From a Surrey Garden: The Classic Diary of a Victorian Lady People have always shaped plants. For the past four thousand years, gardening has had a prominent place in global culture, from the ancient hanging gardens of Babylon to the Mughal garden fronting the Taj Mahal and from the gardens of Versailles to Central Park. Since the beginning of the 21st century, gardening and the placement, care and shaping of plants have been influenced by developments in visual and ecological culture. Though plants continue to affect many aspects of our lives, they do so through contemporary lenses of sustainability, art, radical design, environmentalism, and the strong do-it-yourself attitude of young, creative people around the world. In recent years, the way we shape, manipulate, and employ plants has been affected by new awareness, imagination and creativity. Contemporary artists, designers, gardeners, and craftsmen have been innovative in their handling of plants. Around the world, young visionaries are using a wide variety of materials and physical locations to alter our daily experience with florae, and by so doing, greatly heightening the public’s awareness of their natural environment. Despite being raised in various conditions under sometimes experimental circumstances, plant life continues to evolve, grow, and thrive. Terraria are a good example of plants’ ability gardens contained and floating

gardens contained and floating

...String Gardensâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;plants grown without pots, suspended in the air and supported by nothing more than a ball of roots wrapped in moss, grass, and twine.

gardens contained and floating

to grow under strict conditions tempered by aesthetic and physical restrictions. Though terraria have been in existence for nearly two hundred years, they have only recently undergone a revival, which has altered their character and increased their popularity among a younger generation. The terrarium was invented accidentally in 1829 when a doctor from London, Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward discovered plant growth in a jar, which held moss and a moth’s cocoon. While waiting for the cocoon to hatch, the doctor saw small plants growing from underneath the moss, a surprise to him, given that the jar was sealed. Ward’s interest in his discovery culminated in the publication of a book on the subject in 1842 titled, On the Growth of Plants in Closely Glazed Cases. Terraria have a special appeal to those who live in urban environments in which there may be little access to outdoor greenery and limited space for indoor gardening projects. A terrarium requires little effort and fosters the experience of nature on a personal scale. Despite their containment, terrarium plants thrive and grow, against natural odds. A terrarium is a strictly controlled environment, making the plants within it completely dependent on their caretaker for air, light, water, and food. A closed terrarium, the most common terrarium type, often looks like a wondrous, miniature forest or an entire ecological universe within a bell jar. In recent years, the terrarium may have experienced its greatest resurgence in popularity since Ward’s day.

It is easy to imagine how terraria would hold such appeal to young designers and artists working today: these contained environments allow for the manipulation of nature to a creative end. Contemporary terraria marry many recent trends in design, art, and craft. Some terrarium artists now include miniature sculpture and found art in their bell jars, while others utilize handblown containers designed by local artists. And, as more urbanites grow their own food and engage more actively in thinking about plant life and the natural world, so too can they create beautiful gardens on an intimate scale, bringing these ideas into their homes. Terraria have also been affected by the growing popularity of urban farmers’ markets and craft fairs, and both venues have become popular points of trade for these miniature gardens. Terraria are beautiful, budget-friendly, and attest to the myriad ways in which plants can thrive and change our perception of the world. Other young artists and designers have found ways to work with plants outside of the kind of limitations ascribed to terraria. Dutch artist or botanist, Fedor Van der Valk has recently been gaining attention worldwide for his String Gardens—plants grown without pots, suspended in the air and supported by nothing more than a ball of roots wrapped in moss, grass, and twine. If anything, Van der Valk’s String Gardens function as the extreme contrast of terraria: rather than contain plant life in a small container, he grows plants in space, beyond the limitations of any pot, bowl, or jar. gardens contained and floating

Imagine a room or a window filled with magically floating plants, suspended in the air and seemingly weightless.

Despite the strange conditions under which he places his plants, Van der Valk ensures that they can grow and thrive. He has had great success with transforming perennials, annuals, shrubs, small trees, and orchids into floating works of art suspended in space. He uses a crochet stitch to first construct frames for the plants, and then he bolsters the root ball of the plant with moss and earth to maintain the ball’s shape. “For a while I wanted to make animated videos with crocheted landscapes which were a kind of three dimensional spider web covered in moss and grass,” says van der Valk. “The idea was to create bonsaiesque plants. To keep the landscapes really airy, I decided to work with hanging plants.” The landscapes are assuredly airy, and they strongly resemble kokedama, or a green moss covered type of bonsai popular in Japan. Kokedama are bonsai which are grown fully in a pot and then removed from their container, with the soil and roots maintaining their compact shape. They are then displayed on plates, defying expected gardening practice. Van der Valk’s string gardens make a remarkable impact on their viewers. Hung by itself, a small tree suspended in air is an unforgettable vision. Imagine a room or a window filled with magically floating plants, suspended in the air and seemingly weightless. String gardens form a new kind of indoor garden, a kind of floating forest which allows us to interact with plants at eye level. This is a radical alteration to the usual space between us and our potted indoor 94

gardens contained and floating

gardens. By hanging flowers and trees at eye level, we are more easily able to relate to and interact with them, as we would with our friends and family. String gardens, when viewed in a group, create an otherworldly sensation not unlike the feeling of peering down into the miniature universe of a terrarium. Both garden types operate on an intimate scale, inviting the viewer to engage not only with plants and the natural wonder of their existence, but their ability to thrive in extreme circumstances, whether contained in delicate glass jars or suspended from the ceiling. The creation of these microhabitats, in glass or in air, is a testament to nature’s ability to thrive in spite of the limitations placed upon it by human endeavors.

Returning to the heartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s place, he shakes away the fight.

ch a p t e r f ou rt e e n

CONVERSATION N'8

THOMAS PERSSON â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A conversation with the editor of Acne Paper on the beauty of discovery.

Acne Paper takes readers into another world of fashion, where beauty is continuously evolving over time and awareness. Through the sensitivity of Thomas Persson, a feeling of elegance graces the pages of every issue, as he has imparted a sense of comforting faith in himself and the world around him. As opposed to endlessly searching, he waits patiently with time, seeing magic in the process by allowing the details to inspire him. Fashion is merely a medium, where he documents eternal beauty. Interview by Justin Long Photographs courtesy of Thomas Persson

thomas persson

Handwritten by Erik Satie himself, this note sheet inspired me to open our Youth issue with the sheet music of Gymnopedie.

thomas persson

So Thomas, which part of Sweden did you come from? What was growing up like? Although acne is Swedish and my name is Swedish too, I’m actually Norwegian. It was a Swedish ancestor of my grandfather, a railway constructor who helped build rails between Sweden and Norway, who settled in a fishing village the west coast of Norway. I grew up in the suburbs of Oslo with my mother and grandparents, so we were three generations living under one roof. While my mother was young and liked to dress up and go to parties, my grandparents were homebound, serious and academic. I suppose the combination of these worlds has helped shape my character. I have always loved frivolity and to have fun but I also have a very serious and studious side. Anyway, I remember it as an open-minded and loving upbringing. That’s an interesting balance. Well, at least I think it can be a good one. I never had a relationship with my father so I was lucky to have my grandparents who were very caring and good for my mother too, as she had work and a busy life to attend to. It used to be normal for a family that more than two generations lived together and had different roles in the household but that is an archaic concept now of course. Both my mother and grandmother are interested in clothes and I suppose, being the only child, it rubbed off on me. So when did your interest in magazines first emerge? What are some of your early editorial influences? I think it all started with The Face in the early 90s. The magazine transported me to a world very different

100

thomas persson

from my provincial hometown and introduced me to a culture I longed to be part of. Wanting to be a fashion designer at the time I realised that fashion, style and clothes belonged in a much broader context and so I left my sewing machine at school and started working for the local gay newspaper. It all began with The Face for me too, though it was close to impossible to find copies in Singapore. I know! In Oslo at the time there was only one shop that had alternative magazines such as The Face. It was the news and magazine store on the corner of the Hotel Continental. Now you can find these magazines in many places but it still remains the best magazine shop in Norway. What were you doing before you started Acne Paper? Well, the editor of this gay paper that I started working for sort of trained me as a journalist. He had a long and distinguished career as a journalist for one of Norway’s biggest newspapers and he taught me about feature writing, editorial thinking and press ethics. It was very old fashioned training, quite tedious at times but one I’m very happy for today. After that I joined the editorial team of Natt & Dag (Night & Day), which was a very hip magazine in Oslo at the time which led to big feature commissions for the Norwegian edition of Elle which led to a fashion editor position at a young women’s glossy. During my three years as a fashion editor I went to the shows in Paris, New York and London and realised that if I was to be part of this in a serious way, I needed an education. I was accepted to the ma in Fashion Journalism at Central Saint Martins and graduated with a Distinction in 2003. After that I started freelancing for Self Service.

My great grandfather, Robert W. Thompson was a journalist in the International Herald Tribune, and my grandmotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s memory of his wit, talents and generousity has always been an inspiration to me.

thomas persson

101

Part of my private library at home, a place I always consult.

102

thomas persson

Visiting the extraordinary Madame Gres exhibition in Paris inspired me to do an issue on the Body, which will be Acne Paper 13.

thomas persson

103

It seems you’ve dedicated your life to articulating fashion. What is it about fashion that draws you to it? Well, I used to think that writing about fashion was what I wanted to do, that’s why I joined the Central Saint Martins course. But the truth is that during my ma I realised that I wasn’t interested enough in fashion to be a really great fashion journalist, you know, like Suzy Menkes or Cathy Horyn or Tim Blanks. I became much more interested in the culture around fashion and the artistic movements it has connections with and the personalities behind it. Fashion became a starting point to discover other things, and that is still the case and at the very heart of what we are doing with Acne Paper. So if I am articulating fashion it is by looking at a bigger picture. How did you meet Johnny Johannson? And how did this partnership come about? After college I was living with my then boyfriend Mattias Karlsson in Stockholm. He had started working with acne as a stylist and because they needed a copywriter I was asked to come in and see Jonny. We had met each other at a party and I think we just connected quite immediately. I loved the company, he liked my way of putting words to things, and so when he wanted acne to do a magazine I jumped at the chance of becoming its editor. I think we were just interested in the same things and we hit a nerve. Yes I know that feeling of alchemy, she helped me with my team as well. Speaking of which, as Editor, I’ve been assigned the default role as the face of Underscore, but the truth is, I am nothing without my team. Who are the main personalities behind Acne Paper? Could you tell us about them and how the magazine runs?

104

thomas persson

I feel exactly the same. The magazine would never have happened if it wasn’t for Jonny, if it wasn’t for his belief in doing something so cool and out of the ordinary. It wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for his creative mind and of the open-mindedness of Mikael Schiller, our ceo, who clearly saw and understood our vision. Together with Jonny, Mikael and our new ceo, Mattias Magnusson, they are the ones who are making this happen by initiating it, believing in it, standing behind it. Then of course we would never have reached the high level of photography and the visual aspect of the magazine without our fashion director Mattias Karlsson. Through him we have had the amazing opportunity to work with many of whom we believe to be the best and most interesting photographers and stylists today. It is because of his unique talent, dedication and high level of professionalism that we have become respected as a fashion magazine. In the all encompassing day-to-day running of the magazine I am extremely fortunate to have Duncan Campbell who has been my close associate and right hand ever since we moved the magazine to London three years ago. Apart from being a wonderful person to work with, he has the rare ability to master both the creative and the more administrative sides of making the magazine, working across the entire production, financially, administratively and creatively. Then we have Charlotte Rey who has just joined the team and who has impressed us tremendously both in her editorial thinking and execution, as well as her ability to accomplish our goals of bringing the magazine to a wider audience. Lastly, we have a very strong pr and communication director, Anthony Kendal, who is genius in getting us

...it starts on a tangent and then it just evolves naturally becoming a collection of discoveries.

the most amazing venues for our parties and who brings celebrity and sparkle and kudos to all our events. Together I think we make a very strong team. The theme of every issue of Acne Paper is timeless, emotional and close to the hearts of many. Where do you get your inspiration? Please tell us of a few instances on how they come to mind. It’s a difficult one to answer because it happens so organically. The important thing is that the theme has a timeless quality, meaning it is a theme which is as relevant today as it was in the past. In this way we can use the theme to roam from current times and back through history and through all continents of the world. It usually starts on one tangent. This could be a postcard that I have found at a flea market, which was the case with our second issue which was about Escapism. The postcard depicted a woman sitting on a cliff on the French Riviera. It was taken in the 1930s and had that sort of faded dreamy glamour about it, a place that I would have longed to be and so I started thinking about what our best moments are. Isn’t it sometimes when we manage to escape from the daily trivialities of life? I sort of took it from there and tried to look at escapism not only from a geographical viewpoint but also from a psychological one. Acne Paper No.10: The Party Issue was for me the issue of all issues. I thoroughly enjoyed how it wasn’t just about parties but golden memories of legendary parties. How does the process of editorial curation begin and how do you steer it towards content that you would consider ideal? It all started with a book Jonny gave me, called Legendary Parties. Put together by Jean-Louis De Faucigny-Lucinge, an aesthete, tastemaker and

thomas persson

105

legendary host, it celebrated the incredible creativity that went into all the parties given by luminaries of his generation. Today, at a time when a party often is something quite casual or very corporate, both Jonny and I thought it would be inspiring to celebrate parties of artistic efforts, parties that really dazzle you, parties that feel like a gift to experience, parties to remember. We wanted to discover some of the parties written about in the book, and quite magically when you start on a theme it all sort of comes to you. By chance I was introduced to Anton Perich and suddenly I was looking through hundreds of never before published photographs from Studio 54. So yes, it starts on a tangent and then it just evolves naturally becoming a collection of discoveries. I think that’s what sets Acne Paper apart from other fashion magazines. You’ve actually brought not just intellect, but a conscience, back into fashion. That is a very big compliment, thank you, but I’m not sure if it is entirely true. If anything perhaps we managed to create an interesting and original magazine that doesn’t look, feel or read like any other fashion magazines today, and for that I am very proud. But you know, we have been very lucky to have a company like acne supporting this idea. They are a patron in many ways, a facilitator who enables the people we find interesting to showcase their work in a context which is not about consumer or celebrity culture. It has been, and still is, too much focus on this in the media, where consuming has become almost like how we define ourselves. I don’t think this development is so interesting it should eclipse everything else, and it certainly doesn’t make us any happier. Perhaps we have in a small way with Acne Paper contributed to opening up a discussion about

106

thomas persson

what a magazine can be, what it can stand for, a different set of values. So is Acne Paper now, what you envisioned it to be? Acne Paper is always evolving. If you look at our first issues and compare them with what we are doing now, it has changed a lot. I think the magazine will continue to change and evolve, and hopefully become better and better, while still keeping true to the original concept. I just received the Youth issue over the weekend and you’ve taken it to another level. It feels right; the size, the perfect bind, the thickness, the imagery. I’m glad you like it! Yes, size seems to matter for people (laughs). And youth! It was an interesting issue to do because after we changed from stapled binding, which restricted us to a maximum amount of pages, to perfect binding, where the page amount is almost limitless, we were free to not only include much more material but to give the different features more space, more air, more text, more for the reader, which I think has resulted in all this positive feedback. Discovering content is one part of the process while the other part is putting it all together. There’s always a beauty in encountering Acne Paper’s spreads—whether it’s light, playful or ethereal. What are you like when you direct? Is there a method to beauty? I don’t think there is a method to beauty. I have a certain taste which everything is filtered through. You know, the general opinion is that beauty in itself is boring and that it’s not enough. Creatives within many industries, fashion, furniture, architecture, art, like to

A picture which inspired me to do something on the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, paradoxically for our Youth issue.

thomas persson

107

incorporate things they don’t like, or find ugly, into their work and I agree that it can create something new and exciting, but that doesn’t interest me. To me there is too much ugliness in the world and I have never been interested in newness for the sake of it. I often find that newness today is forced, like the unhappy child of industrial and commercial thinking which is definitely not leading to more beauty, or happiness, for that matter. Some magazines get attention because they show things that are shocking, while mainstream fashion magazines tends to show us things that makes us feel a little bit inadequate, that we should be more beautiful, more successful, thinner, fitter, younger, trading on people’s insecurities. In my own search for beauty I am often criticised for being old fashioned but that has never bothered me. I simply believe in presenting beauty in a way that is not one dimensional. Beauty is everywhere and hopefully we, in a small way, are able to mirror that. Back to your organic tangential process, we can definitely relate to how magically, everything falls into place in the end. What is this magical process and how would you describe it? It is very hard to describe magic, and perhaps magic is the wrong word and I should have used a very different word, like awareness, or to be open-minded? When you have your mind set on something, it is better fit to notice and observe and take in things that develops what is already on your mind, adding on, making you change your opinion about something along the way. But it is true that it can feel magical, when something extraordinary just lands in your lap and it fits more perfectly into what you have been thinking about than what you could have possibly imagined yourself.

108

thomas persson

Please share with us, what is your fight? Your theme of Fight, in the sense of struggle and endurance, is very good. I admire people with endurance, people who are brave, people who fight their way out of the most difficult situations. I don’t know if I’m a fighter, but I believe in sticking to my guns.

CONVERSATION N'9

LYNA TY â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A conversation with half of Song For The Mute on the progression of an ambition.

A creative journey cultivated by the highest of highs and lowest of lows, Lyna Ty, designer from the Australian based menswear label, Song for the Mute tells us about her life changing experiences, reactions, hopes and processes. And that sometimes, you never know what you may gain by losing. Interview by Samuel Willett Photographs courtesy of Song For The Mute

110

lyna ty

111

You have just returned from Paris, debuting your first collection internationally with Showroom Romeo. How did it all go and what was the overall reception of the new collection? Getting the opportunity to present your range to the international market amongst other great designers around the world is an absolute honour. In saying that, it could also be really nerve racking, especially for newcomers such as ourselves. Operating in a foreign environment, dealing with different cultures and market to what you are accustomed to, it really opened our eyes and has changed the way we perceive everything. Song for the Mute is a label that is grounded in conceptual space rather than being confined to a certain aesthetic. This label almost acts like a communication channel that we use to voice our thoughts and feelings. We design for the moment, how we feel, our mood and what we are experiencing or experienced, all adds significantly to the development of our concepts. We are very happy to say that the collection was very well received and we have successfully achieved the goals that we have set prior to the trip. Starting from ss12, Song for the Mute will be represented in 9 countries worldwide.

background, culture, values and beliefs. We’ve been lucky to see lots of ways people live in this world, and the melting pot of all those different cultures is the main product of our design. Autumn/Winter in January this year was supposed to be your debut with Showroom Romeo. But then came the unfortunate situation with the loss of the collection in transit from Australia to Paris. As you were travelling alone, how did this affect you and was there any one person or situation that helped you through what I could imagine to be a traumatic experience? It was the first time I had to present our collection on my own without Melvin so I would say it was probably the hardest thing we have had to endure since the beginning of the label. When I first heard the news I felt numb. I didn’t know how to react and Melvin felt even more powerless as he was in Sydney, Australia. We both refused to believe it at first and did everything we could in the hope that they could recover the shipment, which unfortunately never happened. Everything that could go wrong did, and we had to cancel all our appointments. We were really close to giving up altogether, questioning ourselves if we were meant to do this.

Where and how I’ve been brought up has shaped who I am and definitely is the core influence of my work. Culture plays a great deal in the label’s aesthetics. By moving around to different cities, you tend to lose yourself in an unfamiliar environment, but you get to learn to adapt and appreciate other ways of life, and this is truly a privilege.

Thankfully we received a lot of support and that helped to make the situation better. Our close friends and families continued to give words of encouragement. Marc Rushton from STEALTHPROJEKT was super wonderful by taking me out during the week I was in Paris and introduced me to a bunch of amazing people which definitely helped me to take my mind off things. We also learned a few very important lessons (including Murphy’s law) and we are glad these “catastrophes” happened early in our careers rather than later. It just goes to show you that you never know what you may gain by losing.

We significantly value the importance of our

Did that situation of losing what is essentially

You are Parisian born, schooled within Australia and trained in Italy. How has travelling and the vast differences in these cultures helped shape you and your work?

112

lyna ty

113

114

lyna ty

endless hours of your own work influence or shape the new collection in any way? It definitely did. The concept of the collection would not be the same if the situation never happened. We always knew Milieu was going to be a two part story, but the incident helped push the second instalment deeper conceptually and aesthetically. As the title suggests, Milieu II for ss12 is a continuation from our previous range Milieu fw11. While the first iteration of Milieu was dedicated to my late grandmother and somewhat representing that feeling of losing someone close to you, Milieu II is about coming into peace and finding a feeling of calmness. I wanted to give this collection more air, volume and earthiness by using a lighter colour palette which consists of browns, beige, sand and splashes of sky blue. As always, there is a major focus on all natural fabrics like wool, silk, linen and modal. However, this ss12 season marks our first serious foray into experimenting with unique treatments to the fabrics during pre-production stage. A few of the main fabrics featured in this collection were naturally dyed in Japan with persimmon juice and charcoal, then sun dried to age the fabric to its colour. From start to finish, this process could take up to six months. Song for the Mute has a clear vision, so in terms of direction during your design process, would you say you are conscious of stylistic and technical developments in your garments, or is it more of an organic process? Fabric is the foundation of Song for the Mute’s design as it acts as the initial inspiration for a collection. Once we have the fabric and the concept, the next path happens quite organically. The structure of our pieces communicates Song for the Mute’s narrative and soul as well as the joy of creative culmination. The aim of injecting wonder and a sense of

intrigue in the wearer is a constant throughout the collections. Each collection represents the culmination of creativity between Melvin and I. We both bring our own perspectives to the table thus the fusion of masculine and feminine motifs can be seen in the shapes and cuts of our silhouettes. I would describe our aesthetic as modern proportions, continuous reinterpretation of traditional fabrics as well as constant research for perfection and an exhaustive attention to detail; and above all, the process of merging pure construction and new shapes to heighten the natural qualities of the fabric within the collection. There are certain designers that seem to have reached their interpretation of timelessness, only tweaking and refining their vision slightly season to season—do you feel you are eventually searching for that end-point, or do you see Song for the Mute as a constant evolution? It will have to be a bit of both. We need to tweak and refine our vision season to season but I believe we need to be constantly evolving at the same time. When a client walks into our showroom every season, we’d like them to be excited to see what is in front of them but they should always be able to recognise the brand and its identity. Someone once said to us that a label should be like a book, and each collection should represent a different chapter. That is exactly how we would like this label to progress. We are still in the process of developing our signature look but the silhouette and the flow of the garments present in our previous collections is recaptured every season. We feel that the label is too young to be nominating a particular garment as our signature piece as we believe that with time, the reaction of our clientele to our collections will do that for us. However, we believe that the more voluminous garments do represent Song for the Mute’s creative lyna ty

115

process. Combining a quiet fragility with seemingly harsh details, there is an alluring elegance to these pieces that we would like to explore further in our future collections. The fabric choices this season are all about texture and the tactile experience created for the wearer, the fabric has even been incorporated into jewellrey as an extension of your visionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;at what point did you understand the importance of the intricacies, like fabric and construction, in your work? The design process begins with fabric selection. It is always our first step and Melvin and I stay in very close contact with our fabric suppliers. Inspiration almost always comes from the fabrics sourced. We draw our designs with the cloth already in mind. This is essential if we want to give our customers the highest quality possible; we continually search for fabrics that are special, fabrics that talk to us in a certain way. We then try to find the best way to use this fabric. We think about how the fabric will react to the design, the construction, and particularly the comfort. Ultimately, the different tactile sensations from the fabrics 116

lyna ty

We think about how the fabric will react to the design, the construction, and particularly the comfort. Ultimately, the different tactile sensations from the fabrics draw our design reactions.

draw our design reactions. The subsequent construction is heavily based on heightening those tactile sensations to convey quality.

Finally, what is the next step, is there a certain path you have set for yourselves to ensure the labelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s progression?

I was originally a womenswear designer specialising in costume design and couture. However, when Melvin and I began working on the label in 2008, I was very much intrigued by the challenge and the constrictions that come with designing menswear. I thrive for that challenge, allowing me the freedom to experiment and push new ideas, and to keep collections fresh, impulsive, and intelligent. In menswear particularly, I believe that fabric choices and impeccable construction is everything.

We have to continually source for new fabrics and push ourselves to find new ways to make garments, from fabric development, dye experimentations, pattern making to constructing and presenting the end product. Every single experience weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve gained, has proven valuable to the development of the label. We are in the process of developing the concept for Fall/Winter 2012 which will encapsulate the things we have learnt so far. Hopefully we can reach out to people who love design as much as we do, offering them quality materials, top notch construction and unique design.

With that being said, can we expect to see Song for the Mute extend the vision into womenswear in the near future? We would like to first establish Song for the Mute as a menswear label but womenswear is definitely on the cards. I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait! I write notes on my personal diary as I usually get flow of ideas and inspiration that would help us shape the identity to what will become our womenswear range.

Song For The Mute is available at Inhabit, a multi-label boutique in Singapore with progressive labels handpicked from all over the world.

lyna ty

117

NEIGHBOURHOOD N'14 – UTRECHT

VOORSTRAAT Text & Photography by Joachim Baan (Another Something)

118

voorstraat

Five years ago, we moved from Amsterdam to Utrecht, forty kilometers south of Amsterdam. It is the fourth biggest city of the Netherlands, but small enough to cross on your feet. Moving from Amsterdam to Utrecht is something like moving from Manhattan to Brooklyn; it is not that far, it is a calmer place and you don’t have to walk over the heads of tourists. My favorite places in Utrecht have a good mix of everything. Start in the morning with the best coffee, probably of the Netherlands, at The Village Coffee & Music. A rough and uncompromised space with art from young and upcoming artists on the walls and music from punk to singer-songwriters coming out of the speakers. From there you walk a hundred meters to Pappa’s Haar Dude (Daddies hair duded). One would think this coiffeur was a surf dude in his former life, and maybe he was, but this place looks like it was

transported all the way from Los Angeles to Utrecht, Erwin (the barber/shop-owner) included. If you ever come to Utrecht and need a perfect haircut or the old way of beard grooming, go to Pappa’s. From there you cross the small and busy city centre to the other side, to Cris. Before I partnered in Tenue de Nîmes, the denim inspired boutique in Amsterdam, this was definitely my favorite shop of the Netherlands. A sublime collection of Italian, French and Scandinavian labels in a challenging interior of wood, stone and copper designed by Cris himself. To end the day in my neighborhood it’s a five minute walk crossing the Dom Tower of Utrecht, to Deeg. A beautifully designed restaurant full of Dutch Design, serving the most delicious organic food. With a mix of lovely food, great wines and perfect service, this is definitely my favorite place to eat in Utrecht.

voorstraat

119

Halfway up Nacimiento Road lies a good place to study your mistakes.

ch a p t e r f i f t e e n

CONVERSATION N'10

BEN GORHAM â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A conversation with the founder of Byredo Parfums on the science of scent.

A fragrance house in Stockholm has committed itself to the emotional aspect of scent by creating products that are reminiscent of lost memories, classic personalities and impressionable moments. Byredoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s style of perfumery is a combination of the Scandinavian aesthetics and ethnic influences of its creator, Ben Gorham. While most people employ methods of photography or journals to record precious moments of time, Ben does the same through scent. His vision fills each bottle of inception with a soul, completed by the limited use of raw materials. This ensures that every ingredient has a reason for being, as they are being considered to the fullest potential. They are then hand assembled in Sweden and delivered within a simple and elaborate packaging. Photographs courtesy of Byredo Parfums.

122

ben gorham

Hi Ben, it is a pleasure to be conversing with you. How are you? Well travelled at this point. Most places inspire me one way or another, from the most extreme, like India to Norway, they all have a very distinctive charm. The thing about these places that has become very important to me is culture, something I feel is very relevant. I agree. What was growing up like for you, and what did you enjoy most about your heritage? I come from a very simple home, and was brought up by my mother alongside my little sister. I am of Indian and Canadian origin and lived in Sweden. That is a whole lot of festivals to celebrate. My mother always thought it was important that we learnt about Swedish celebrations and cultures. I enjoy the great diversity of food and people and was not exposed to a very American lifestyle or Indian way of celebrating festivals. Growing up in various cultures has helped me relate to other

cultures. I also studied Fine Arts at the Stockholm Art School. How do your studies relate to your work today? It was relevant in the fact that they were multidisciplinary. I was able to learn and experiment in different mediums. I was completely clueless upon graduation, and had no real plan. I knew I was looking for a form of expression and by chance I found it in fragrance. Fragrance is just another medium for me. Do share a memorable encounter with scent. Returning to India, after having not been there for fifteen years was an incredible experience for me scent wise, for the fact that it was so extreme. But since learning about fragrance I have begun to identify fragrance memories I did not know I had. Your encounter with perfumer Pierre Wulff was a turning point in your life, as it brought you into the world of scent. Could you tell us more about the meeting? We met through common friends and Pierre ben gorham

123

The brief towards the perfumer consisted of pictures, and a very personal story about my father and the relationship we had.

124

ben gorham

was the first person to explain the creative possibilities of scent to me. Pierre’s introduction sparked an interest that grew into an obsession. After which, I worked on my first perfume creations for quite some time. I had no commercial thought at that point and was very focused on the idea of smell, then it eventually seemed logical to present it in the form of a perfume. It wasn’t until much later when people started appreciating the work I had put together that the commercial ambition was born. So who are the craftsmen whom you work with today? How is it like in the Byredo studio? Our studio has become a free place and most of the ideas and energy that we communicate are not fragrance related, except in my head. I have a very creative group around me. I work with perfumers, Olivia Giacobetti and Jerome Epinette, and they are best described as the true artists in the projects. They are responsible for translating my ideas and wishes into perfume. Their craft and skill is one that very few people possess. Please walk us through the creative process of realising the first ever Byredo perfume? The first perfume I conceived was called Green. It was about capturing the way I remember my father from early childhood. The brief towards the perfumer consisted of pictures, and a very personal story about my father and the relationship we had. It also described an era and the way I remember him smelling. I described to the perfumer to

think of the essence of a green bean. From initial brief the perfumer creates a first version, which we then proceed to modify over a period of time. The modifications are time consuming. That is why every Byredo creation feels precious and intimate, for they were inspired by memories. How has your working process evolved? I usually create a brief consisting of different elements such as objects, stories, places, memories, music and imagery. From the initial brief, Olivia and Jerome send me the first interpretation, which becomes the starting point for a fragrance. We then do modifications until the fragrance fulfills my expectations emotionally. This process can take anywhere from eight months to three years for us. For the fragrance, Encens Chembur, the inspiration was a collection of images from Chembur, India, the place my mother was born and grew up in. I also had a specific object that I associated with the fragrance, it was a filtering carafe, used by Muslims to filter perfume oil. I bought it at a local market in India. Upon placing the two candles, Loveless and Bohemia in our studio, they instantly created a n extremely uplifting presence for themselves. I’m curious to know, is the process of creating a perfume similar to that of a candle? Thank you. They are rather similar in the creative process, because for me, it is about specific references and emotions. From a

ben gorham

125

technical standpoint it varies. I would say that creating a perfume is a bit more complex because of the fact that fragrance changes and dries down. Please share with us the development stages of the understated Byredo packaging design. The idea was to create a bottle design that was simple, placing focus on what was in the bottle, the fragrance. We created about ten prototypes. The overall process took about a year and a half. In a way, Byredo creates through the impact of contrasting elements: old versus new, simple packaging versus powerful scent. How do you create a balance between extremes? I think that my approach has been very personal and individual. It reflects my idea of well-balanced aesthetics. I’ve always been fond of archetypes and contradictions and that is a large part of the play in this process. So what inspires you? That is difficult to specify, because I have so many, but having a daughter is really incredible, and unlike anything I have ever experienced. I am also inspired by different movements and people, for example, the Beat Generation with authors such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, and also the scene happening around the Ferris Gallery in Los Angeles in the late 50s, early 60s. In terms of music, the early stages of hip-hop reminds me of my youth and is a favourite of mine. I love traveling to new places, urban or

126

ben gorham

rural. Believe it or not, most places have a unique smell. Can you please sum up the palate of Byredo’s upcoming release? Female seduction, drama and spices. We can’t wait. Is Byredo everything you envisioned it to be? Not yet, but it’s also a large part of what drives me. The constant development and evolution of a brand. Please share with us, what is your fight? I’m fighting to understand myself and to express it.

ben gorham

127

THE U STORE the u store was established to support the growing community of independent craftsfolk who shy away from products of novelty and dedicate themselves to creating pieces that are made to last through generations. It is with shared beliefs in traditional processes, integrity of materials used and sensitivity in design details that we seek to collaborate with these select craftsfolk to present simple, honest items of handmade distinction. available online at www.underscoremagazine.com

the u store

THE POSTALCO BUSINESS CARD HOLDER

Made of naturally cured and tanned matt leather with pressed fabric interior pockets, every fold and stitch of the postalco business card holder is strategically located and meticulously manufactured with the skilled precision of Japanese craftsmen. For the ease of safe-keeping business cards, it is sized to fit a back pocket or the comfortable grip of a hand. Made to welcome everyday use. details Grey fabric interior Black Calfskin Leather exterior Handmade in Japan dimensions L110mm Ă&#x2014; W69mm Ă&#x2014; H10mm price US$165.00 Postalco is a stationery and leather goods company with focus on functionality and Japanese craftsmanship.

the u store

THE FOLKS STOOL

Made of solid oak from well-managed forests, the folks stool is considerably weighted for stability and durability. With no metal nails, and with mortise and tenon joints on all four legs thickened to ensure sturdiness, the low height and gentle recess allows for a comfortable ease of access. details Black Stained Solid Oak Brass Plate with U Logo Handmade dimensions L400mm Ă&#x2014; W350mm Ă&#x2014; H450mm weight 5.5kg price US$350.00 Folks is a collection of contemporary wooden furniture that pays homage to the old ways of wood-craftsmanship.

the u store

THE V AVE SHOE REAPIR JOURNAL

An everyday container for personal thoughts and ideas, the v ave shoe repair journal was crafted with specific calculations in weight and size for portability. Munken Print Cream from Sweden was chosen for its natural texture, colour and pressure tested for ease of writing and illustrating. It is also fsc and pefc certified. With thread sewn binding for durability and flexibility, the raw and minimal design is intentional and meant to exhibit a gradual process of wear and tear with its constant use. details 196 pages of Munken Print Cream Velvet paper cover Black stain ribbon marker Thread sewn by hand dimensions L190mm Ă&#x2014; W130mm Ă&#x2014; H15mm price US$35.00 V Ave Shoe Repair is a dedication to traditional tailoring, pattern making and the old ways of the trade.

the u store

ALMOST EVERYDAY Text by Peter Silberman (The Antlers)

Amidst a daily routine of inevitable chaos, bright spots open up over time, much like answers to life’s puzzling questions.

today I’ve borrowed my sister’s car for the week. I drove it down from upstate New York (or, what people unfamiliar with or not based in New York City consider “upstate”, which by all other accounts is known as the suburbs, and referred to by real upstaters as “downstate,” which is now how I think of it, for no real reason). The transition from downstate to the city is gradual, but obvious. It begins with a rather sudden deletion of trees, paired with steadily increasing traffic. This leads you to focus on the traffic, to be so distracted by navigating through asshole drivers and fucked up roads as to be unaware that the woods are gone and replaced by concrete. But if you stop to realize this, you, yourself are fucked. If you slow down, you will be tailgated, and if you speed up, you will have close calls nearly rear-ending someone in front of you. If you want to change lanes (or need to, to catch one of the many quick-tomiss exits), a mammoth suv will appear from nowhere, suddenly one car’s length behind,

desperate and determined to get ahead of you. Another driver will pull in front of you while you second-guess your decision to change lanes, or this car will prevent you from exiting by swerving ahead and stealing the narrow ramp while you momentarily worry about the danger dancing around you. Most people will not use turn signals, or will only use them after already having made it clear that they are doing what they are doing at anyone else’s expense. They may turn it on for a second, either out of self-conscious automatic reaction, or for fear that a cop is close (in New York State, you must use a turn signal. I think it is a ticket-able offense). Despite all this, you get home, somehow. okay, tomorrow then Last night I was going to go to sleep early but instead I went to sleep late. This morning I was going to wake up early but instead I woke up very late. re-park car on tuesday Try to find a spot before rush hour, around three or four.

almost everyday

133

tuesday night I don’t know what to do with this feeling that turns up every so often. It’s a cloud surrounding me while I’m home or walking around. It’s an unclear argument I’m having with myself, or imagining myself having with someone else, and neither of us are winning. It’s a conversation I hear behind me while I’m walking, pissing me off, though it’s irrelevant and unrelated to me. It’s the sound of voices talking to each other, somehow awful to overhear, and unavoidable. It’s turning onto a side street where I won’t have to hear them, but feeling so much empty space on the street with no people, and wishing I was back on that street with annoying conversations. It’s knowing that it will pass, and being irritated by knowing that. okay, tomorrow then Last night I was going to go to sleep early but instead I went to sleep late. This morning I was going to wake up early but instead I woke up very late. do laundry Before Friday, if possible. us now She and I don’t know how to fight, or maybe it’s that we are excellent at not fighting. I don’t think she’s ever raised her voice at me, and our faces tend to be so close to one another that one of us screaming would deafen us both. There is a lot of logic in our situation, daily assessments of what we’re doing and evaluations as to whether or not its “a healthy, good thing.” We try to avoid 134

almost everyday

exaggerations in our reactions to one another, in our responses to something one of us says that makes the other uncomfortable. We subtly imply the possibility of other people showing up in either of our lives, a possibility that lets us temporarily forget we still care about each other and that we miss each other a few times a day. I’ve learned to not ask, and she’s learned to not listen. not tomorrow, but definitely soon I was going to clean this place up but instead I totally forgot and made an even bigger unnecessary mess. Now it’s even less likely that I’ll clean at all, unless it becomes absolutely unlivable. do laundry Before Friday, if possible. re-park car on wednesday, for thursday Try to find a spot before rush hour, around three or four. out the other night Myself and a couple of guys I grew up with (but was never very close with) started talking about drunk fighting. We were going back and forth about which cities have more people who go out to bars and start fights (Boston came up, parts of Manhattan but by no means all of it, somebody might have mentioned Chicago) and then began trading bar fight stories. Mine never became a real fight. It was more about somebody (dressed as a flasher, in a trench coat, with a sock-as-fake-dick that

he would run over and expose to every table, the weekend after halloween) picking a fight with me because, being drunk and annoyed, I had been crumpling up pieces of my napkin and throwing them at him. My friend’s boyfriend made the situation worse, egging the guy on and volunteering to “go,” me trying to keep peace and get everyone to “calm the fuck down.” Eventually the guy went away. He kept drinking and sat next to me, wanting to be friends, doing that drunk repeating thing, insisting that we had to “put this whole thing behind us, man.” I try to remember the year this happened, and cannot. The other guys take their turns, telling similar stories that, similarly, never developed into actual fights. okay, tomorrow then Last night I was going to go to sleep early but instead I went to sleep late. This morning I was going to wake up early but instead I woke up very late. move car before friday morning I am forgetful. I forget everything I need to do unless I write it down. I save emails as drafts, I email myself reminders, I keep a text document open on my laptop with a list of everything I need to do (if urgent, in all-caps, as if threatening myself). I still don’t end up doing a lot of these things. I accidentally forget about them forever and then they’re just gone. DO LAUNDRY BEFORE FRIDAY.

this week I’d really like to talk to her right now but she’s overseas and I’m here, and when she’s there I always want to let her be in that world, to speak only to people with her accent or a different version of her accent. I want her to return to the place she grew up and stay there uninterrupted. I want her to figure out why she always wants to leave all the time, and I want her to forgive me for actually doing that myself. I want her to come back to The States and have figured something out, and to tell me about it, and for us to be together and split up at the same time, and to forget about each other when we’re apart. before leaving for the weekend Throw out coffee cups and recycle empty beer bottles. today On what feels like the first real day of spring, clouds keep rolling in and getting pushed back by the sun, clearing up, then the clearing getting swallowed up by what seems like the same clouds as before. This goes on for a while but the clouds win and the day ends, it turns into night and you don’t even notice anymore. MOVE CAR BEFORE FRIDAY MORNING tonight Now that we’re both in the same place, we’re both trying to not talk, and succeeding. I’ll just let it go. I’ll have to assume that this is probably the way this was supposed to work almost everyday

135

out, without theatrics, but rather, a gradual and obvious forgetting of one another’s phone numbers.

ahead, and reverse into the spot that they miraculously measured for size in the two seconds it took to slow down to a stop.

okay, tomorrow Tonight I’m going to sleep whenever I go to sleep. I will wake up early, regardless.

The only people who get annoyed by this are the drivers who aren’t parking, cars on their way from one place to another, unimpressed by our typical subpar, occasionally fantastic parallel parking skills. They honk and throw their hands in the air and shout, “fucking come on!” behind their windshields, and meanwhile the parkers are doing what they can to get out of the way. Once the furious drivers go past, the parkers go on, peacefully looking for a good spot.

this morning In parking a car in my neighborhood, the right side of the street is park-able with the exception of Monday and Thursday, and on the left, all days except Tuesday and Friday, but only for a couple of hours each day. These hours are usually between 9 am and 11:30am, or on other streets, between 11:30am and 1pm. During any of these parking prohibitive hours, there are wandering cars, exiled from their spots and searching for a place to re-park at the worst possible time to do so. There are not suddenly more spots available. There are too many cars for parking spots, and they end up parking further away than they want to, even though they know they’re being ridiculous and it’s not actually that far a walk at all. She and I just found a spot, small enough to maneuver into. We get out and lock the doors. The other cars are still droning down the street, trying another block, slowing down to practically nothing when they think they see a spot that turns out to be a fire hydrant, and continuing. One-by-one they each get lucky and find a spot. Without using a turn signal, they pull to one side of the car 136

almost everyday

You have to be patient. Parking takes a long time, but spots open up.

A QUIET MOMENT Text by Hila Shachar

Language transcends time to convey deep-rooted emotions and valuable lessons, connecting people from the past and present. The memories come to me as a series of frozen images, which require the cohesion of narrative. I first read Emily Brontë’s novel, Wuthering Heights, as a young girl in Israel. This image I remember clearly: wearing a polka-dotted dress, bony knees poking out, brown sandals and one long plait that reached my waist. On my lap, a thick heavy book with copious illustrations. I remember almost nothing about the bomb shelter in which I first attempted to read the novel, as it sat like a comforting weight upon me. When I was older, I told my mother I thought the walls were a mix between dirty white and crumbling grey, with a lurid yellow light peeking from various corners, like a fractured candle. She told me I was wrong, the walls were dark, and the light too strong and fluorescent. There are images she cannot remember, because she did not experience them. They are unspoken consciousness to which I have held on. I remember the first page of Wuthering Heights with a satisfied sense of dislocation. It was entirely foreign to me and I understood little of the novel. What people don’t tell you when you are old enough to understand is that memory is more often an all-encompassing, pervasive feeling, rather than simply a narrative of the past. I collected random words I liked from this first page, assigned them a feeling, and permanently pinned them to my memory. I began the important task of fragmenting the novel for later purposes.

The Late Cord – Lila Blue lights from the wheelhouse (2006)

One of my favourite words was England, found on the third line of the first paragraph of Wuthering Heights. In Hebrew, this is literally pronounced as, Anglia. It is a round sort of sound the forms a circle and full stop in your mouth. It was a different type of movement to pronouncing familiar names in Hebrew. I liked the a quiet moment

137

Neck bent forward, shoulders achingly still, fingers attaining pen residue, red marks, pressure points and bitten nails.

seeming symmetry of the word and its suggestion of somewhere else, cold and foreign. All I had learnt about England came from stories my grandfather told me in the kibbutz. Tales of the British Mandate, and the Haganah. I don’t remember them well. In fact, the only detail I have retained from them is a description of hidden ammunition beneath the soil of the kibbutz. Behind that hill, that’s where we hid them, my grandfather once said, pointing to a large, innocent looking mound in front of his tiny room. He must have been only a teenager. My first copy of Wuthering Heights was borrowed from the library at his kibbutz. The book would later appear in our household in various other forms, brought home by my father in English and Hebrew. But it’s this first copy that I remember best for the shock of the first reading and the odour of cow dung that lingered on every object from the kibbutz. A few months after the book was borrowed, it was to be returned. Sitting on my grandfather’s lap, he asked me, “Did you like it?” He always asked me the best questions. I wanted to say many things. Like how I thought Cathy was beautiful, the illustrations were pretty and Heathcliff was a strange man. But I said nothing and buried my face in his shoulder. I wanted to tell him my revelation of words. That here, on this first page of Wuthering Heights, was an altogether different England. My England of writing. A type of Utopia—a nowhere land that suggested the pleasure of narrative in the midst of discomfort and dislocation. Years later, I know that what the book gave me through its strange language was an appreciation of the written word as a form of consciousness and personal survival. 138

a quiet moment

The pleasure of reading created the instinct for writing, and writing became truth. It is a truth and consciousness I share with others across the pages of books and the terrain of language. In 1933 when the Nazis rose to power in Germany, a little known academic and writer, Victor Klemperer, began documenting their fascist use of language in a series of personal diaries. As the Nazis manipulated and changed the meanings of words such as heroism, Aryan and human being, Klemperer responded through his own narrative, seeking to record how people were becoming seduced into war through words. He became fascinated with particular words, studied them from all angles, sought to understand their meaning and fought his way through despair with the simple utterance of language. When the Gestapo beat, robbed and humiliated him, he replied through his diaries. These words outlive the Gestapo, as they sit quietly on my bookshelf like modest soldiers. I think of his words being ripped from their pages in violent Gestapo raids. Through them, I recall my grandmother’s funeral. In Jewish funeral ceremonies, there is a mourning ritual called the Kria. Literally translated, this means tearing. For the death of a parent, the left side of the shirt is ripped as a sign of grief and loss. I was angry at my grandmother’s funeral. The sound of my father’s ripped fabric was soothingly satisfying, because I knew it expressed the rage she did not dare speak or enact in her own life. I now think of my grandmother, and half a family killed in the Holocaust. I think of what so many people on her street have done with their experiences. There was one woman on her street who hoarded food in her bedroom, as if a wall of canned substances was a

defence against the memories of rotting bodies and the fear of another war. What did she think she was accomplishing? I think of my mother’s friend whose father survived the Holocaust. His defence was a form of mutilation of his daughter, feeding her unnecessary medicines to protect her, till her insides were ruined. This is what they have done with their experiences. Klemperer’s diaries showed me another form of tearing that eluded silence, suffocation and the fear of memories. It is a tearing I encountered again through Sylvia Plath. Her poetry is laden with words my grandmother dared not speak: Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen. Through them, she carved a poetry of survival and redemption. Her poems beckon me in a secluded fight for identity, and I’m drawn to her time and again. Plath’s poetry was created through literal tearing of the pen on the page, in a type of physical defiance that matched her vocabulary. Through her pen, she speaks to Klemperer, and reveals to him what life can be created from the ashes of torn and manipulated words. She writes through the silence of my grandmother. The jolt of her defiance comes rushing back to my consciousness through the Beats: Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs. To beat like them with the pen is to defeat violence Klemperer endured. To beat like Ginsberg is to touch the exhaustion that comes with exultation, and to read his poem, Howl is to encounter the words of one for whom words are holy. Ginsberg’s howling is a passage through tearing. I imagine him in a constant battle with his typewriter, seeking to record that, which has torn him apart and left a residue of holy words in its wake. It’s those words that now define him and his generation, and they are best read quietly, slowly, repetitiously, as an unspoken prayer. The last

pages of Howl are literally the word holy, uttered over and over again. This is not the holiness of religion, but the holiness of humanity. Reading them, I fuse Ginsberg, Plath and Klemperer together in my mind, in a fragile fight for survival. I’m aware of my body when I encounter their words. The aching twitch at my shoulders and neck bent forward from reading, the slight glow in my eyes that comes from intense concentration, the slow pleasure of stretching in between words that linger. This is a process that is transferred to the act of writing. Neck bent forward, shoulders achingly still, fingers attaining pen residue, red marks, pressure points and bitten nails. The annoyances of headaches and watery eyes, the deep breath of a completed passage. This is not romance, but acute awareness of what words are to the body. All that seeks to disintegrate us, to tear us apart, to burn us from the outside into ashes, dissolves into minus when I sit down to write, and speak with myself and those who have come before me. My body reacts with precision through its acknowledgment of contemplative silence, discomfort and the slow physical process of putting words to paper. This is something worth fighting for: to forge a small quiet moment within the day to remember that first magic of creating a round sort of sound that forms both a circle and full stop in your mouth. To remember that words can be manipulated and reclaimed through different kinds of wars. To realise that we can tear, but also create. That we have the simple everyday pleasure of words that will always leave some form of residue on our bodies and minds, no matter how much we take them for granted.

a quiet moment

139

NEIGHBOURHOOD N'15 – SINGAPORE

TIONG BAHRU Text by Karen Wai (BooksActually) Photography by Zheng Jiaxin

140

tiong bahru

The town, mapped out in perfect symmetry, lay calm before us. As we crossed the road1 moments ago, I noticed its moat of tarmac and dense flurry of cars enclosing the town. Yet, how it exists—lighted and ample in its own sufficiency. I began to yearn for solitude. It was here that I left you, pulling the distance between us. Underfoot, fields of weeds grew like stars—three searing spindles and, at its centre, a soft pollen heart. I chose one and kept it close. Alone, I coursed along the pulse of the town. Around me, the neighbourhood softly awakened around me, gathering feasts in gravitational clusters: there, the kinsfolk are called together, three generations round a table; in another, a family sit hushed, their faces illuminated, resurrected collectively by a tale; then, through the stillness of a lighted nursery, a baby sleeps, wrapped in the soft, steady ripple of a mother’s hum. These tales rarely intermingled, but lingered around each of them while they retrieved mail from their solitary letterboxes, while brushing shoulders with each other along the narrow stairway 2 , even at the coffeeshop 3 —the pulse of the conjoined triplet apartment blocks—where, every morning, the entire neighbourhood congregates, then migrates, during lighted intervals of the day. I wonder if you miss your own, if it was painful to be surrounded, yet remain, unable to be embraced.

Footnote: 1 The ever-busy Tiong Bahru Road, a trajectory that joins Zion Road, the Central Expressway, and the path leading from the rest of Chinatown to Orchard Road, the famed shopping district in town. Before the war, the expensive Tiong Bahru walk-up apartments became the estate where many rich and powerful men kept their mistresses, then also known as the Den of Beauties. This could explain the layout of the buildings: reticent with dark, narrow stairways, no common corridors, and doors of the apartments seldom facing one another. 2

3 Hua Guan Coffee Shop sits at the heart of a unique, vast, C-shaped apartment building that spans across three roads. Outside the coffeeshop sits a metal grooved structure where bicycles can rest, a welcoming gesture of assembly.

The trees that line the avenue along Kim Tian Road, parallel to the canal which spans the entire length of the Tiong Bahru estate, are spaced five footsteps apart. These trees play guardian to a bicycle belonging to the nearby resident. Under these trees, and upon the open field where small community festivals, or funerals were often held, families of mimosas grow wild. 4

Built onto the end of each apartment, near the windows, are large metallic wheels with sharp spokes, these architectural features prevented neighbours from climbing into each others’ homes. 5

If I could extract these stories, distill their essences in my memory, and release them for you, I thought, we could begin to plumb the depths of this town: uncover the mystery of the trees spaced five footsteps apart 4 , unfurl the grasp of the harsh metallic spokes that bracketed these homes 5 and, perhaps then, melt away its architectural fortress, gently curved 6 yet stubbornly cloistered and impregnable. Then I understood. These homes were fenced in by choice. Amidst its topographic immensity, a tiny world was created, and to keep this alive, it had to be continually enveloped, protected, and fended for. It was the only way anyone knew how. As you wait, I am writing you a letter from the periphery, manifested only through our distance. Yet it will reach you, I know, exactly three months from today, pulling you back to the centre of my universe.

The buildings of Tiong Bahru are styled in Streamline Moderne: a late evolution of Art Deco, where they are stripped of fauna and flora in favour of the aerodynamic pure-line concept of motion and speed. It manifests in curving forms, long horizontal lines, symmetry, and mathematical geometric shapes with archaeology, aviation, and ocean liners as inspiration. Architectural touches like air wells, rounded balconies, rounded edges of buildings exemplify this style; yet there are also aspects of a Straits Settlement shophouse, consisting of back lanes, spiral staircases, communal courtyards, thrown in the mix. 6

tiong bahru

141

Text by Stephanie Peh Photography by Jovian Lim

Light creeps silently in and out of our lives, renewing each day with a powerful surge of hope. These are objects of great importance in the past and present, providing more than functionality but empowerment to the spiritual being.

Akira Kosemura â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Light Dance tiny musical (2008)

142

a dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s promise

candles Like most inventions, the story of candles began with a simple necessity to enhance life. Used by the rich and poor to provide illumination and heat, they once played the role of timekeepers, as its burning consistency was the closest precision available back then. Today, it is easy to overlook the role of candles on manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s evolution, as they have retired into a romantic gesture or a decorative gift in modern day living. Candles almost do not exist for function anymore. Today, the form of a candle varies from a typical cylinder to a perfectly crafted animal figure. They come in various colours and are created from a range of fascinating materials, such as beeswax, soy, animal fat or paraffin. There is something about these materials that makes the experience of touching candles feel strangely familiar. It starts to resonate

when one lights up the wick with a flame, and a long lost comfort and calmness overwhelms its beholder. Romantic as they are symbolic, they can be broken down over and over again, and renewed as a form. Upon carefully dismantling the packaging boxes of the Byredo Loveless fragranced candle, an almost immediate transformation was observed within a space that now glows, much like the arrival of a charming guest. Neither overpowering nor pushy, its innate scent quietly appeases the mind. Despite possessing the ability to burn for sixty hours with three tiers of scent, it is definitely a valuable addition to a collection of precious unused objects. The Loveless fragranced candle can be purchased at the Byredo store located in Stockholm, Sweden. a dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s promise

143

light bulbs Some places are blessed with a bounty of natural light during the daytime. Unblocked by unsightly skyscrapers or construction, light travels through windows and unknown spaces, casting unexpected shadows and patterns upon walls with a warm telling that the day is alive. This is possibly one of the best conditions to do something productive, such as finish a book or to embark on something. Adequate lighting is required to effectively complete tasks, hence the past centuries saw human beings finding various ways to make the day last longerâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; finally the electric light was invented. As the sun sets, they become our silent company through the night, ever supportive of those who burn midnight oil. Lighting designers have raised the bar of fashion shows, enhanced the experience of viewing artworks or created sensational theatre with breathtaking light 144

a dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s promise

installations. Like candles, they have been manufactured and thought out in various shades of the spectrum. For productive value though, it is best to stick with the whites or yellows. The Special Mercury Mirror light bulb is a traditional incandescent bulb, a classic at heart with a slight twist. As its name suggests, it is tainted at the bottom to minimize glare, providing a pleasant and encouraging glow within its allocated space. When hung naked, it becomes a joy to stare at, as its appearance exudes a sense of rawness and purity. The Special Mercury Mirror light bulb can be purchased at your local convenience stores.

Japan | Sons & Daughters

Joe Hisaishi â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Ave Maria~Okuribito okuribito (departures) soundtrack (2008)

阿部海太郎音楽家

死者・行方不明者2万人という数字を見ながら、一人でしか死ねない2万の孤独を思う。避難所の女性がボランティアの美容師に髪を切ってもらって、輝くような笑顔を見せたとき、人間の尊厳は「衣食住」よりも「美」に深く関わっているのではないかと問うた。「国難」に立ち向かう日本人を見ながら、戦時下日本の思想精神の傾斜化と盲目性、その危うさを、戦後生まれの自分は初めて理解した。人は一人でしか死ねないとしたら、まずはその一人を愛したい。国のためではなく、ただその一人の尊厳を守るために歌うことは許されると思う。

Umitaro Abe Musician

Looking at the figures of the 20,000 dead and missing, I can only think of the solitude of these 20,000 people who died alone. Seeing a woman’s face light up after a hairstylist volunteered to give her a haircut, I felt that our self-dignity is based more on beauty than so-called essentials such as clothing, food and shelter. Looking at how Japanese confront this state of “national disaster”, as someone born after wwii, I sensed for the first time, danger of totalitarianism and blindness in Japan’s wartime hysteria. If we must die alone, I wish to extend my love and affection to all those people. I should think that I would be allowed to sing a song, not for the sake of my country, but for the sake of respecting the dignity of a single human being.

Japan: Sons & Daughters

植原亮輔アートディレクター

デザインにできることって何だろう？社会と深くつながるデザインという仕事は、社会が機能してないとほとんど力を失うようです。社会というものは、生活があって生まれるもので、生活というものは、生きることができて成り立ちます。デザインは生きることとどう繋がっているのだろう？この震災を経験して、我々日本人は変わっていくのだと思います。デザイナーは、より社会を見つめ、社会と繋がり本当の意味でのクリエイティブを考え、実行していく時代になっていくのだと思います。デザインの力って何だろう？人間誰もが欲望を持っています。ひとつ願いがかなったら、もうひとつの願いができる。そしてそれは限りなく続いていきます。人生とは、この欲望との戦いです。しかし、それはとても良いことでもあります。文化や社会を繁栄させ、生きる喜びにも繋がるからです。僕は、デザインというものは、生きる喜びのスパイスになり、欲望を楽しむ生活者の活力になるものだと思っています。創り続けたり、発信し続けることで、何かが大きく機能し始め、変わっていくものだと、僕は信じています。

Ryosuke Uehara Art Director

What can design do in the wake of a disaster like this? The work of designing objects and systems that are intimately linked to society loses all impact, if the society for which it was designed ceases to function. What we call society emerges out of life and all its activities. What we call life springs from the fact that each of us is able to live. How does design relate to the act of living? I think Japan will go through a process of change as a result of having lived through this earthquake. We will reach a stage where designers examine the society in which they live more closely, forge a closer relationship to it, reconsider the true meaning of what it means to be creative, and implement their proposals. What are the strengths of design? All human beings have their desires. When one request is fulfilled, another one emerges— the process continues endlessly. Life is the struggle against these limitless desires. This is also a positive thing, however. These desires are linked to the happiness that one feels by contributing to a flourishing culture and society, as well as the joy of living itself. For me, design is the spice that adds zing to the joy of living, as well as a source of vitality for all of us who live to play out and enjoy our desires. Japan: Sons & Daughters

By continuing to create and disseminate my work, I believe that design will help to trigger the start of something big, something that will bring about change.

尾原史和

Fumikazu Ohara

アートディレクター

Art Director

僕が仕事としているデザインという行為は

It’s always at times like this that I ask myself, how can this thing called design, which I do for a living, make a difference? Even though I constantly think about this, I can never come up with a good answer. I gave the question some more thought after the earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11, but I still couldn’t reach a conclusion on the matter.

こういう状況のときに、どういう関わり方ができるのか。常に考えながらも、いつも結論が出ません。それは今回の大きな地震と津波が起こった後もあらためて考えましたが、やはり結論がでません。ポスターを作ることが役に立つことでしょうか。それとも他人事のようにアイデアだけを出すことでしょうか。僕はいちいちデザインというフィルターを通す必要を感じることができませんでした。ポスターやアイデアを出して、素晴らしいと他人から褒めてもらう為にデザインをしているのでしょうか。どうしても結論が出ません。しかし、ヒントはありました。僕は社会のシステムの為にデザインをしている訳ではなさそうだ。ということです。目の前の小さなディテールに対して向かい、考え、発見すること。ただ、その楽しみのために僕はデザインをしているような気がしています。

Perhaps making a poster might help? Or trying to think of some good ideas that would help to solve other people’s problems? In each of these cases, I can’t say I felt that these suggestions needed to pass through the filter of design. Aren’t we just designing posters or throwing up ideas so that other people can compliment us on how brilliant they are? I just could not come up with a satisfactory sort of answer. I think I found a hint, though. What I realized was this: it seems as if I am designing not for the sake of society as a system, but rather in order to confront all the little minor details in front of me, to think about them and make brand new discoveries. I design things for the joy and pleasure of those processes. This earthquake represented a sort of trigger that allowed me to think about lots of things at the same time—myself, my family, Japan, and the world. For me, the biggest surprise came from the gestures of concern and

Japan: Sons & Daughters

support that came from people all over the world. I found myself utterly moved by all the expressions of affection and thoughts that were with Japan. This incident also triggered in us a sort of awareness and sympathy as fellow human beings.

華雪書家

わが足はかくこそ立てれ重力のあらむかぎりを私しつつ森鴎外

ひとつの短歌を教えられた。去年のことだった。けれども深い感動もなく、しかしなぜかそれを目の前の壁に貼った。震災の後、新聞で福島の水族館にいたゴマフアザラシが千葉の水族館に避難し、そこで子を産んだという記事を読んだ。添えられた写真には茶色の柔らかな毛に覆われた産まれたての血の跡をあちこちに残す子アザラシと母アザラシが写っていた。その写真もまた、なぜか切り取り、目の前の壁に貼った。ある日、わたしとはなんでしょうか？と問われた。改めて見つめた目の前の壁には歌と写真が相変わらずあった。「私しつつ」、わたしとは「する」ものだという歌の隣の写真の中では、母アザラシが子アザラシを、子アザラシは母アザラシを見つめていた。それは身近なものを懸命に見つめるまなざしだった。今居る場所で私をする。そのことがわたしを長く揺さぶっていたのだと気づいた。懸命に「わたしをする」ことが身近なものを見つめるまなざしを生み、連なりを生み、それがまたわたしを生かす。その連なりが緩やかに新たな他者と結ばれていくことを願っているのだと。

Kasetsu

Calligrapher

My feet stand on the ground like this entrusting themselves to gravity Being myself with all my might Someone taught me this poem last year. Although I wasn’t particularly moved by it, I somehow stuck it on the wall in front of me. After the earthquake struck, I read an article in the newspaper about a spotted seal from an aquarium in Fukushima that had escaped and took refuge at another aquarium in Chiba, where she gave birth to her baby. The attached photo showed the mother seal and her newborn baby covered in a soft coat of brown fur with traces of blood still here and there. For some reason, I cut out that photo and stuck it onto the same wall. One day, I asked myself the question, what am I? I looked again at the wall in front of me, and there they were: the poem and that photo, just as they had been before. Next to this poem that reminds me that I am an entity that does—that devotes itself to being myself—is a photo of a mother seal and her baby looking intensely at each other. These are gazes that watch intently and desperately over a familiar presence. Being themselves, in the place where they are now. I realize now that it was this prospect which startled and shook me for a long time. The self that struggles to be gives rise to a gaze that looks hard at the things it holds dear, and to a series of connections that rely on the self in turn. I hope these connections find

Japan: Sons & Daughters

a way to bind themselves gently to some new, other person.

倉成英俊コピーライター/ CMプランナー

ありがとう。ほんとにありがとう。みなさんからの支援は、涙が何度もたくさん流れるほど、あたたかかったです。総理大臣の代わって、ぼくたちがお礼を言います。ありがとう。そして、ごめん。迷惑かけてほんとごめん。ぼくらは、あんまり疑いもせずに、すごくおかしなことの上で暮らして来たみたい。日本が世界の役に立てるように、この21 世紀に、変えて行くことを、総理大臣に代わって、ぼくたちが誓います。

Special thanks: 米国、ユニセフ、中国、香港、台湾、モンゴル、インド、カナダ、タイ、ウクライナ、ITU、インドネシア、キルギス、フランス、シンガポール、韓国、ロシア、コロンビア、ウズベキスタン、イラン、オランダ、デンマーク、リトアニア、ベネズエラ、マレーシア、WFP、フィリピン、パキスタン、ネパール、フィンランド、イスラエル、メキシコ、英国、バングラデシュ、トルコ、ウルグアイ、ハンガリー、スウェーデン、スロバキア、グアテマラ、タンザニア、カザフスタン、ポルトガル、豪州、ブルガリア、スリランカ、チリ、オーストリア、クウェート、ベトナム、サウジアラビア、チュニジア、アフガニスタン、モルディブ、イタリア、オマーン、カタール、ブルネイ、ルーマニア、NZ、パプアニューギニア、トンガ、サモア独立国、ブータン、ラオス、東ティモール、アイスランド、アンドラ、アイルランド、エストニア、バチカン、ラトビア、ルクセンブルク、スロベニア、クロアチア、セルビア、チェコ、ギリシャ、アゼルバイジャン、グルジア、ブラジル、パラグアイ、アルジェリア、ガボン、スーダン、赤道ギニア、エリトリア、ナミビア、ボツワナ、マダガスカル、ルワンダ、アルメニア、ミャンマー、カンボジア、タジキスタン、モンテネグロ、モルドバ、ベラルーシ、アルバニア、ボスニア・ヘルツェゴビナ、ジャマイカ、ニジェール、ガイアナ、セネガル、マリ、コンゴ共和国、ケニア、マケドニア、ポーランド、ガンビア、セントルシア、ミクロネシア、ナイジェリア、トーゴ、モーリタニア、ツバ

Hidetoshi Kuranari Copywriter / CM Planner

Thank you. Thank you so much. The support that you offered us— the warmth of your concern and affection made our tears flow again and again. We’d like to express our gratitude on behalf of the prime minister. Thank you. We’re sorry, too, for all the trouble we caused. It seems we’ve gone about our lives with something seriously wrong in our midst, without suspecting that anything was out of place. On behalf of the prime minister, we pledge to make some important changes during the 21st century, so that Japan can be of use to the world. Special thanks: America, UNICEF, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mongolia, India, Canada, Thailand, Ukraine, ITU, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, France, Singapore, South Korea, Russia, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Iran, Holland, Denmark, Lithuania, Venezuela, Malaysia, WFP, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nepal, Finland, Israel, Mexico, England, Bangladesh, Turkey, Uruguay, Portugal, Australia, Bulgaria, Sri Lanka, Chile, Austria, Kuwait, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Afghanistan, the Maldives, Italy, Oman, Qatar, Brunei, Romania, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Samoa, Bhutan, Laos, East Timor, Iceland, Andorra, Ireland, Estonia, Vatican City, Latvia, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Brazil, Paraguay, Algeria, Gabon, Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Namibia, Botswana, Madagascar, Rwanda, Armenia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Tajikistan, Montenegro, Moldova, Belarus, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jamaica, Niger, Guyana, Senegal, Mali, the Republic of Congo, Kenya, Macedonia, Poland, Gambia, Santa Lucia, Micronesia, Nigeria, Togo, Mauritania, Tuvalu, Ethiopia, Iraq, Antigua and Barbuda.

ル、エチオピア、イラク、アンティグア・バーブーダ

Japan: Sons & Daughters

小林エリカ執筆家 / 漫画家

いつもより電気が消えている薄暗い東京の街にも慣れてきました。忘れてしまうこと、忘れること、忘れずにいること、私はそのバランスたちを探している途中です。いま日本に生きている、ひとりひとりのことを、気にかけてくれてありがとう！

Erika Kobayashi Writer / Comic Writer

I’ve gotten used to all the lights that’ve been turned off in a city that has become darker than it used to be. I’m still trying to find a balance between things I’m sorry to forget, things I want to forget, and things I’ll make sure I won’t. Thank you for being concerned about every single one of us living here in Japan.

スズキタカユキファッションデザイナー

今回の震災は非常に衝撃的な出来事で、人間の存在そのものを揺さぶり、自分たちに何ができ、何をしなければならないのかという非常に根源的なことを問いかけてくるものでした。「服を通じ、精神的な幸福感を感じてもらう事」僕が出来る事はこれであり、この事が何より必要だと感じでいます。皆が協力し、自分に出来る事を精一杯頑張ることで、以前よりもさらに素晴らしい日本にして行きたいと思っています。頑張ります！！！！！

Takayuki Suzuki Fashion Designer

This earthquake came as a tremendous shock—it caused all these disruptions to human lives and prompted us to think about what we can, and must do at an extraordinarily basic level. As for myself, what I can do is to bring a sense of emotional happiness to people who wear my clothes. I feel that this, over and above everything else, is what is needed at this moment. I hope everyone tries their best to excel at what they feel they can do, working together to try and make Japan even more spectacular than it was before. Let’s give this our best shot!

Japan: Sons & Daughters

鈴木康広アーティスト

Yasuhiro Suzuki Artist

10 years ago, I boarded a domestic flight in Japan for the first time. In たときのこと。雲の上に抜けるまでの束の that brief instant before we soared 間、世界の見方が変わりました。海が次第 up and over the clouds, my whole に水には見えなくなっていく感覚が不思 view on the world changed. I found 議でじっと見つめていると、船が海上を開 it incredible that the ocean soon く「ファスナー」に見えたのです。その時の ceased to look like a body of water, 自分の衝撃を人に伝えるために、本物の and kept staring at it. That was 船で実現したいと思いました。ラジコンを when I saw a ship that seemed to 作って公園の池を「開き」、構想をスケッ open up the surface of the sea like a zipper. I decided to recreate this チに描いて人に伝え続けてきました。そし incident using a real ship in order て昨年、多く人の協力を得て、数々の困難 to convey the shock I felt at the を乗り越え、瀬戸内国際芸術祭で「ファス time. I made myself a radio ナーの船」が、ついに実現できたのです。 controlled ship to open up the pond 海の上を進むファスナーのかたちをした in the park, and made sketches of 本物の船を巡る地上からの視点、上空か the entire setup to try and commuらの視点、海上からの視点など、作品を見 nicate the idea to other people. ることで海そして「地球」を見る人の視点 Last year, with the support of lots そのものが作品になっていきました。小さ of people, I overcame numerous obstacles and finally managed to なものと大きなもの。人間が生み出したス make my Zipper Ship a reality at the ケールと太古から地球に流れる時間のス Setouchi International Art Festival. ケールを僕たちはどのように測り合ってい The view from the ground, the sky けるのか。地上から離れるにつれ次第に and the sea, looking towards an 「動き」として見えなくなっていく海岸線に、 actual ship sailing across the ocean 僕たちが今考えるべきヒントが隠されて and making a zipper appear in its いるように感じています。 wake, took the perspectives of all these people watching the ocean and the Earth’s surface and turned them into an artwork. A combination of small and big things. How can we measure the scale of something manmade, or the scale of the time that has passed on Earth since ancient times? As you get further from the ground, the coastline soon fails to register as movement. I feel as if there are hints as to what we should be thinking about concealed within it. 10年前、国内線の飛行機に初めて搭乗し

Japan: Sons & Daughters

中村竜治建築家

前に進んでいるのかどうかわからないくらい小さくて地味な作業の積み重ねが巨大な建築をつくりあげます。途方にくれてしまうような地味な毎日の繰り返しを投げ出すことなく、大切にしながら生きて行きたいと思っています。

Ryuji Nakamura Architect

It’s the accumulation of the little tasks—those that are so small and simple that they leave you uncertain about whether you are making any progress—which come together to create a massive building. I want to carry on with my life by cherishing these simple daily motions and repetitions that sometimes leave me perplexed, without ever abandoning them.

Japan: Sons & Daughters

幅允孝ブックディレクター

地震と原子力発電所の問題が、僕たちから平坦な日常を奪ったのは確かだ。昨日も牛肉からセシウムが検出された。政府は無能の極みをさらし続けている。だけれども、僕はここを逃げ出そうとは思わない。３歳の息子は、一時的に九州へと避難していたものの、また東京に帰ってきて、多くの友だちがいる保育園に通ってい

Yoshitaka Haba Book Director

The March 11 earthquake and problems surrounding the nuclear power plants have no doubt wrested our peaceful everyday lives from us. Just the other day, radioactive caesium was detected in Japanese beef. The extremity of the government’s powerlessness is constantly being exposed.

る。僕は彼に向かって「君は被爆と共に生

Nonetheless, I have not entertained thoughts of fleeing this いま目の前に横たわる問題は、完全に日 place. Although I briefly evacu本の一部だから。 ated my three year old son to Kyushu, he soon came back to とことんリスクを避ける生き方を選ぶなら、 Tokyo and the daycare center, 垣根のなくなりつつある世界を、資本の where he has lots of friends. I 循環量と安全を見極めて動き続けるのが sometimes turn to him and say, 賢明なのだろう。 “You have to carry on living だが、「根」を失って彷徨い続ける人生も together with all those people who were more seriously affected.” また別の意味で大きな不幸だ。 The problems that confront us 幸いにも、僕たちには放射能の被害と向 now are entirely a part of Japan. きなければならない」と言う。

き合い生きた偉大な先人たちがもう既にいる。例えば、原爆投下後の広島を描いた井伏鱒二の小説『黒い雨』を読めばいい。

今の日本にいる僕らは、彼らの智慧を継ぎ、また伝えていくのだ。

If I were to choose a way of life that avoided even the smallest risk, perhaps the smartest solution would be to lead a nomadic life of perpetual movement, traversing a world of rapidly disappearing boundaries while always keeping your eye on how safe a particular place is, and how much capital is circulating in it. To lose sight of your roots and spend your entire life constantly wandering from place to place is, however, a great misfortune of an entirely different sort. Fortunately, there are already predecessors among us who have been victims of radiation and survived. Reading Masuji Ibuse’s Black Rain, which depicts the city of Hiroshima after the atomic bomb, would give you a good idea.

Japan: Sons & Daughters

Those of us who live in today’s Japan are poised to inherit their wisdom and insight and pass it down to the next generation.

増崎真帆マネージメント / PR

思いやり、優しさ、愛。不満、嘘、怒り。焦り、不安。震災のあと、ここでは、人の色々な心があちこち縦横無尽に行き交っていました。きっとひとりひとりの中にも色々な心が同居していて、揺れていました。あるとき、ふと気がつきました。みんな、生きたいんだ、と。その「生きたい」のかたちや方法がみんな違うだけなんだと。これまでもこれからも、色々な心が世界を行き交っています。昔も今も、どこかにもここにも、傷ついた人がいて、幸せな人がいます。そういう意味では世界は時空を超えて変わらなくて、私たちはその世界に生きています。タイの友達が「揺れない心」という言葉を日本にいる私たちに送ってくれました。今ここにいても、この先どこにいても、心を揺らさない強さをもって、生きたいと思っています。

Maho Masuzaki Manager / PR

Sympathy, kindness and love. Dissatisfaction, lie and anger. Impatience and uneasiness. After the earthquake, all kinds of people were coming and going; here and there, far and wide. Each and every heart is shaking. In such a situation, a notion occurred to me: Everyone wants to live. The reason of this unstable situation is caused by everyone’s different method of I want to live. Various hearts have always been here and there. Anytime and anywhere, there is someone who is hurt and there is someone who is happy. In that sense, the world exceeding space-time has never changed and we are living in such a world. My Thai friend sent us in Japan the word unshakeable heart. I would like to live with strength for unshakeable heart, anytime and anywhere.

Japan: Sons & Daughters

山縣良和ファッションデザイナー

日本人は戦後永らく、本当の意味で戦う事をしなかった人種なのかも知れません。しかしながら、3.11以降、今私たちは自分たちの未来を描くために戦わなくてななりません。今、多くの大量消費社会を根本とした経済論者が原発推進を論じています。私たちは20世紀の大量消費社会からも決別しなければならないのです。そして私たちには、忘れてはならない世界で唯一の原子力体験があり、原爆記念公園があります。原発は大量消費社会のドラックであり、手を出してはいけないものです。私たちは原発を放棄し、私たちの愚かな過ちを忘れないために、原発記念公園を建設しとともに希望ある未来を想像すべく、戦後60年経った今、日本人は、私たち自身と戦わなければならないのです。

Yoshikazu Yamagata Fashion Designer

For a long time since the end of wwii, we have perhaps lived without having to struggle in any real sense of the term. Since the earthquake and tsunami of 3.11, however, we have had to fight for a vision of our own future. Many economists based in firstworld societies of mass consumption are now pushing to promote nuclear power. We have to break away from these 20th century models of mass consumer society. Japan is also the only nation in the world to have withstood a nuclear attack that can’t be forgotten. The Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima commemorates this incident. Nuclear power is a drug that powers our societies of mass consumption, but it is something that we should stay clear away from. In order to abandon nuclear power and to never forget the sheer idiocy of our mistake, we should try to envision a hopeful future in addition to building a nuclear memorial park. 60 years after the end of wwii, it is ourselves that we Japanese must struggle against.

Japan: Sons & Daughters

渡邊良重アートディレクター

震災の日からいろいろ考える日々が続いています。被害を受けられた方々の悲しみや不安はまだまだ続いていくし、日本全体でそこに思いを向け続けていかなければなりません。悲惨で過酷な状況の中、東北の方々が見せて下さった本来の日本人のあるべき姿は、この先に起こるかもしれない大変な出来事に対して、世界中の人たちの道しるべになっていくのでしょう。原発の問題は、私たちが暮らしてきた美しい日本で行われてきたことかと思うと腹立たしい気持ちにもなりますが、今後の未来を考える上での多くの問題提起にもなりました。もし福島原発が今事故を起こさなかったら、日本中の世界中の原発はこれからも増え続け、人類を滅ぼしかねない大事故が起こったかもしれない。利益や欲を優先させた東電や経済産業省やジャーナリズムの罪は今まさにソーシャルメディアが普及した今のこのタイミングだったから多くの人が知ることができた。それはきっと自然エネルギーにシフトしていく大きな力になっていくのだと思います。そして、美しい日本を取り戻すチャンスをもらったのだと思います。これから日本は変わっていくのでしょう。たくさんの人が考え始めました。ひとりひとりの生き方がさらに問われる時代です。デザイナーとしては何ができるのでしょう。使い易い機能的な道具や整理された情報、それに加え楽しいもの、美しいもの、安らぐもの、新しいもの、ちょっと刺激的なものも、私たちには必要です。私には何ができるかをちゃんと考え、良心に従いながら仕事をしていきたいです。

Yoshie Watanabe Art Director

I’ve been thinking over a whole host of things ever since the earthquake happened. It will take some time for the victims to overcome their feelings of grief, worries and insecurities, and the thoughts and emotions of Japan as a whole need to continue to be with them. Under these tragic and harsh conditions, people from the Tohoku region have shown us just the sort of courage and fortitude that we Japanese ought to emulate. They’ve set us an example for the people of the world to follow, in the event of any terrible disaster that might occur in the future. It angers me whenever I think about how these nuclear power plants have been built all over this beautiful country of ours where we’ve made our homes. On the other hand, it has also raised lots of questions about how we should go about planning the future. If the Fukushima accidents hadn’t happened, nuclear power in Japan and the rest of the world might have carried on proliferating, and some massive disaster could have eradicated the human race. It’s precisely at a time like this, when the use of social media has become prevalent, that many of us have become aware of tepco’s greed and profiteering, and the blatant lies peddled to us by journalists and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. This, I think, will give us the considerable momentum we need to make the shift to natural and renewable energy. This is a chance we’ve been given to reclaim our beautiful country. What can we do as designers? In

Japan: Sons & Daughters

addition to functional, user-friendly tools and information that is well-organized, we need things that will bring us joy and pleasure, beauty, comfort. New, novel, and stimulating things. As for myself, I hope to give proper thought to what I can do to help, and carry on doing my work with a social conscience.

Yoshiko Edstrom

Ryoko Moichi

Teruhiro Yanagihara

I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know what to say; this natural catastrophe came so quickly with such massive violence.

Invited by a friend, I attended a Christmas Mass last winter. The architecture was briliant. My friend wanted to show it to me. I am not Catholic. But I have been to Catholic kindergarten and school between thirteen to eighteen years old. At that time, I could not understand most of the things Christ was saying.

For us, what occurred in Japan is not only a local disaster. Rather, it has become an event that affects and touches the whole world. The messages of concern and affection that we received from abroad were overwhelming. We were, and remain truly thankful for this concern and compassion that made us feel as one across borders.

Majority of the people living in the northern part of Japan are simple people and they live with nature. Even today, after five months has passed, a lot of them do not want to move away from where they have lived for generations. Despite the uneasy living conditions at the moment, children to elderly are positively moving forward with a lot of help from all over the world. I really believe that they will return to live where they came from. They lost a lot of things with the natural catastrophe but they will come back with a respect for nature and continue living with it.

PR / Communication Director

But last Christmas, I understood very well what the minister was saying; he told us about neighborly love. Recently in Japan, I felt that something simple, but very difficult, was lacking. We cannot recognize that importance until someone taps on our shoulders. March 11, we received a big and heavy message about that. To love neigbour. If we cannot understand this meaning, we will not be loved by anyone. We need to change now.

Japan: Sons & Daughters

Designer

後藤繁雄

Shigeo Goto

クリエイティブ・ディレクター / 教授

Creative Director / Professor

ありがとう（トーキョーからポジティブなア

Thank you—We would create positive art works from Tokyo

ートを創造したい） 3.11は、東日本／東北に、大地震、津波、そして原発事故による放射能性物質の飛散という3重の災害を与えた。多くの人命、家屋、街、生活が失われ、被害エリアは南北400キロにおよび、被害状況、復旧の進捗速度もバラバラで、再生への道はまだまだ遠い。例えガレキの撤退が終わっても、原発事故の収集は、エネルギー問題もふくんで解決にはほど遠い。3.11は、千年に一度の災害と言われるが、時が経つにつれ、日本を大きく変える起点であることがはっきりするだろう。僕は編集の仕事を中心に、デザインなどクリエイティブの分野や、写真・コンテンポラリーアートに関する仕事をしているが、周囲を見ていて、「変れない者」はダメだなと思う。「変る」というのは、何も東北へ行きボランティアをしなければならないとか、義援金を出さないといけないということではない。もちろん緊急時に、それらの他者を救うことは当然だが、僕は想像力に何ができるかが問われているのだと思う。大津波は人の力を超えたもので、波そのものには罪はない。「自然は人にやさしい」と人間が勘違いしたのが悪いのだ。古代の人は、自然の恐ろしい力を知り、逆に人のモラルをつくった。3.11は、自然観、生命観、倫理、そして表現の意味。それらの「パラダイムシフト」を迫るものだ「変れない者」に未来はない。僕は、人を楽しくするポジティブで明るいエネルギーを発する表現が好きだ。暗く病的な表現はトーキョーから出てこないだろう。最悪をくぐったからこそ、最高のポジティブなエネルギーを。ありがとう、それが世界に対する想像力のおかえしだ。アートプロジェクトをたくさん作り出したいと思っている。

3.11 has given us three kinds of disasters: earthquake, tsunami and highly radioactive iodine seeping from Japan’s damaged nuclear complex. In a 400 kilometers long area, which is such a massive scale of damage, thousands of lives, houses, towns, everything was taken suddenly. It seems we have a long way for the recovery of the whole area with each area’s different level of the damage. Even if they clear the trashes and wreckage of buildings, we will see no solution for the nuclear issue. As the time goes by, it became more obvious that 3.11, this once in a million disaster has been a turning point which changed this country at enormous level. I have been committed to an editing job myself for quite a long time now, having been involved in the creative field including design, photography and contemporary art. When I look at the people around me, I feel that only the ones who can change=shift themselves will and can survive. Shift does not just mean to go to the damaged area and do volunteer work, nor send more money for the donations. It is needless to help each other in an emergency situation, but what I am talking about here is the matter of what a creative imagination can do right now. Earthquakes and tsunamis are always beyond human power and not to blame. It is our mistake to create the fantasy that nature is gentle for human beings. Ancient people knew the fearful power of

Japan: Sons & Daughters

the nature and they created human morals to live with. 3.11 is urging us to do a paradigm shift on our fundamental notion of nature, lives, morality and creativity. The ones who cannot shift would have no future. I like creative works with positive energy, which makes people happy. Dark, sick expression will not be born from Tokyo. We have experienced the worst, so the most positive energy should come out. For the enormous help that the rest of the world have given us, we would like to reply with our creativity. To make this happen, I would like to create more art projects.

Made with Japanese paper, this last signature of 16 pages is dedicated to all the creatives of Japan who fight the constant fight, with hope for greater things to come. Translation by Darryl Jingwen Wee Coordination by Sawako Fukai & Maho Masuzaki

Japan: Sons & Daughters