by Chris MaGeeDuring my trip over to Tokyo for Tokyo Filmex 2010 I found myself trekking from the main festival site at Yurakucho Asahi Hall and up through the Ginza to the National Film Center where Unijapan had their DVD library set up. During all the too-ing and fro-ing I would pass the Ginza Mini Cooper showroom quite a bit and I'd see this wonderfully painted psychedelic-looking Mini Cooper in the showroom window with a stag emblazoned on its side. I enjoyed looking at it but I have to admit that with all the Filmex business going on that I never made the connection as to what I was looking at. It turns out that it was the work of a group of my favorite Japanese graffiti/ installation/ video artists Rinpa Eshidan.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the name Rinpa Eshidan make sure to check out their YouTube Channel, but suffice to say the group collectively takes over a space and begins to paint elaborate murals and build impromptu sculptures... and then they proceed to dismantle them. Painting is layered on top of painting and the process is repeated until they're finished or just exhausted. All the while Rinpa Eshidan are doing this they are also videotaping the process and ultimately the time lapse documentation of their projects becomes video art itself.
You can see what kind of treatment Rinpa Eshidan gave to the Mini Cooper that ended up in the showroom window by checking out their video chronicling the whole process below. Fascinating and fun stuff!
That was awesome! The Rinpa Eshidan group truly is the master of the brush. In a matter of hours, they were able to turn this Mini Copper into a gorgeous art canvas. It only goes to show that as an artist, anything can be your canvas and you can showcase your art to anyone in more ways than one.[Leisa Dreps]
ReplyDeleteWow! Without a doubt, that was an awesome experience! You really saw how the Rinpa Eshidan group works! It must’ve been really cool to witness such an event. I’ve seen a lot of artistic cars in the last car shows I went to, but I never saw how the artists actually worked on it. I would love to observe it too! That’s what I look forward in the future. ;)
ReplyDeleteDelsie Maidens