As always, the audience for Design Festa 42 was as colorful and creative as the thousands of artists, fashion designers, illustrators and craftspeople displaying their works. The latest edition of this twice-annual celebration of Japanese and international creative talent seemed to be more feminine and more natural than before, and dominated by pairs of young women in matching outfits - as both artists and customers. Frilly grown-up versions of the creepy twins from Kubrick's The Shining seemed to be everywhere.
Our favorites were jewelry creators Choco and Merize in matching peroxide wigs and outfits. They were almost sold out of their brooches and earrings made of real cookies and pretzels plasticized in durable resin. To add realism, some of the snacks looked half eaten or broken. They have been exhibiting at Design Festa for three years now, and even sell their wares at La Foret in Harajuku.
Another standout was artist Shigeko Takayama of Pulp Illumination Art Studio. In the brand-new low-light area, she exhibited a dozen lampshades in washi (Japanese paper). The lamps take the form of nests, mushrooms and eggs made from sheets of handmade kozo (mulberry) paper, which are then decorated with 3-D papier-mache pine forests and branches made from paper pulp.
Another artist working in light was Yukio Takano, a striking figure in Zen monk robes and Mohawk hairstyle. His mycologically correct fungi glowed eerily on their driftwood bases like mutant 'shrooms from the classic horror movie Matango. Each piece takes about two weeks to create using resin, LED, copper wire and driftwood. They were selling like hot cakes to fungus fans.
Artist Koji Sekikawa paints large-scale paintings of tiny beetles and caterpillars in psychedelic colors. Hiroshi Kakuno's manga postcards of Japanese office workers and secretaries performing physical exercises with various animal and marine species were selling well.
In the audience, the box-head men seemed to have disappeared back to Abe Kobo's Sci-Fi world, and in their place we saw a lot of people wearing fox and tiger heads, or beaked masks under steampunk hats. Among the women, ram's horns were a popular hair accessory.