Hussein Chalayan is a bit of a household name in artschool fashion. When you start fashioning art-school kinda way people start going, "oh, have you seen the work of Hussein Chalayan?" Before yesterday I could say, yeah, you know on the web blah blah blah but now I can say that I have, in person, and his quality is fantastic (incase you were wondering). You might be saying, who is Hussein Chalayan? And why is he even remotely interesting to me?
You might be familiar with this classic coffee table that unfolds into a skirt.

I have been exposed to this image over and over again but I never saw it within the context of the show and collection he had designed for it. I was only exposed to his more sculptural end pieces, such as the one he did with LEDs, not his other pieces. I also never knew his inspiration. I always assumed he simply knew he wanted to make this pieces and as a sculptural fashion artist, he just did. But I was wrong. He made huge collections to contain these pieces based on very unique and personal concepts. This show in particular was inspired by the movement of people. How would you take your personal belongings when forced to move? Chalayan was inspired by his personal background (as his most powerful collections often are). He is Turkish but studied at Central St Martins in London. His people were forced to move during periods of strife (among other things). Given that most of my readers are scholars of history, I don't think I need to delve deeper into this subject.
You can see some of the way the exhibition was laid out on Chalayan's personal blog here
I was just so excited to use my GRUTT pass yesterday at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo but because I care about Chalayan, I had to purchase the special exhibits pass that also got me into the museum. The main exhibit was trying really really hard to show some pieces from the permanent collection. I've read that this collection is huge. The space that the museum takes up is MASSIVE but the exhibit space for their permanent collection is really small. The premise of the exhibition is best summed up on the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo's website "This exhibition, entitled ‘Plastic Memories’, focuses on the theme of memories that have been removed from their original context of ‘place’ and ‘time’, becoming raw material for the artists to reshape through the power of their imaginations, thereby throwing a light on one aspect of ‘contemporary art’. Numerous different kinds of memories have been brought together, they do not necessarily spring from personal experience, some are communal, in the form of history, while others reside within materials or locations."
It's an interesting concept and it was really neat to see some of the pieces, although others needed a bit more of an explanation for me. I'm not sure if that's the way things were intended or what. The neat thing about the MCAT is that you can pick up cards about the artist and the piece after certain pieces and have that little bit about what you enjoyed. So often we just get the little tidbit program about everything, not just the ones we are fascinated by, so this I enjoyed. Photos were not allowed in the museum.

I passed some awesome dogs on my way there. Dogs in Tokyo are horrifyingly expensive. I later wandered into a pet shop in Roppongi because I thought it would be a nice contrast to head to the Mori Museum. Stupid cats are close to $4000. I know it's Roppongi, I know, but this isn't unusual. Today I think I will head to Ikebukuro's Tokyu Hands to go appreciate some jaded cats because I'm so damn lonely.


Telling me the direction to go in.

I headed to Roppongi on this very crowded train. I got off, wandered around for awhile, before I finally went to the Mori museum. I tried to go the the National Museum of Art but it's closed on Tuesdays. I also tried to go to a couple more museums in that area, but they were also closed. The Mori museum is kinda expensive so I wasn't extremely excited to pay for it, but as I go closer to the area I happened upon this huge free 3D concert sponsored by Sony.

I had this crisis for a second about what I should be doing and then I stopped. I have all this time and not a lot of money, so I might as well go see some weird free concert thing and some crappy bands of never heard of for free.
There was an insect that was a little too excited about my decision and flew into my shirt at this moment (meaning, there was this suicidal insect...). He met quick death.

Stupid perverted insect. He tried to chill out in my shirt, but no. That is not allowed.

Here's me with 3D glasses on. Embarassing. I stuck around for two bands (photos were not allowed) Pidgin and Scandal before the concert ended.
It was fun and I was tired so I decided to head back to the ranch. When I returned I tried to take a shower only to find my towel on the floor and my soap missing. Finally I went to Tokyu Hands and bought a new towel and new soap. I also found some of those weird flavored toothpaste (they had all the flavors) and am bringing them back for certain special people (who like curry flavored toothpaste). If you have any specific requests for toothpaste flavors, please let me know.
I'm still coughing ridiculous amounts. It is very muggy outside. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do today yet, although I do have a lot of options. Maybe SeaPark? I don't know.