J.Nicely

Rikki Kasso, my favorite American ex-patriot turned Japanese pop art phenomenon, has done it again with this incredible new 6-story tall art installation created for the opening of the new Tokyo Institute of Education and Child Development.

Mr. Kasso was nice enough to give us this detailed explanation explaining this project:

The Site
Tokyo Institute of Education and Child Development, A new learning and teaching institution school in Meijiro, Tokyo`s prestigious Ivy League academic district. The building is directly in front of the train station (Mejiro, Yamanote Line) and opposite the Royal Gakushuin University, where the Emperor`s children attend. The school is a combination effort of education for teachers and children between the ages of 3-6. The top 5 floors of the building are dedicated as a school for teachers to introduce this new semi radical structure reform of the Japanese education system. The objective is to eliminate curriculum from early education and concentrate on fertilization of free thinking and experimentation. To nurture an individual learning process as opposed to organized pattern of thought. Considering Japan`s infamous archaic education system I was drawn to the idea of progress and creating the future for something so effective and affective.

The Assignment
For this work, I was commissioned to create the facade of the building, it was going to be a permanent, public piece that would exist on a timeless plane as well as have stimulating daily presence. The artwork would be interacting with over 500,000 daily commuters from the passing train lines and the adjacent station, along with the constant pedestrian and automobile traffic at the major intersection. I felt compelled to create a piece that would encompass all of these attributes of the environment and in effect not get “boring” for those passing the piece or the attendants of the building facilities. While also using an image that reflected the essence of the structure both internal and external with an aesthetic that would blend in to the environment as well as create a new one.

The Solution
Using the predetermined material of punched metal panels suited by the architect, I wanted to create a piece that was both effective for the exterior and interior of the space. The material reminded me of an industrialized version of Shuji (Japanese rice paper doors) that would be transparent and multi purpose, cutting the direct heat on the building and conserving energy in the process. The direct sunlight I realized would help me to create the interior. Using shadows and seasons to keep the interior of the piece in motion and keeping with my concept of a work that literally changes with the weather. The exterior was going to have to have the same effect of depth in the way that it would not become boring and understated as the years passed. Using a combination of simple and complex, an original ASCII art was created from one of my photos and encoded with messages about communication and education. An image that would integrate in to such an academic environment and represent the this new educational venue, for children and adults. Defined by simplicity as a single image, and dissected in to complexity with the messages in English and Japanese kept the piece engaging and perplexing.

The Image
I immediately thought of a photograph of mine of 2 children holding hands reaching in to an emptiness I had taken a few years previous at Yoyogi Park,here in Tokyo. Also at the time I had been fascinated with ASCII art from the 80s, I loved the idea of translating an image in to a language. It was literally the future where instead of “a picture is worth a thousand words” now the picture was a thousand words. With the ASCII art work I began to imagine it as refrigerator alphabet magnets that I had as a child, stuck on the face of a building. As I thought more into it became clear that this text in in digital form also known as a “font” was also a brand new language that children will grow up with as an automatic second language. A “Neo-Neanderthal” age where symbols and icons are used to reform communication. Within these text symbols are messages in English and Japanese such as Teaching is the best way to learn, The future starts now, Live,Love>Learn, etc. The composition of the children`s legs are composed of numbers, representing the foundation of numbers, that exist in all languages, and is the core to this generations communication.

Within that spectrum, the idea of an image or idea evolving was even more relevant. What started as a photograph, had evolved out of its form in to new dimensions, first becoming the arbitrary two dimensional image we know as language alphabets, than becoming a three dimensional form that would create an existing and non existing space in the form of stainless steel and shadows. Using the available light from the sun according to the season, the shadows of the interior would rotate as the year passes defining a new space between the 3 dimensional object of the steel letters visible through the windows and the shadows casted on the wall. So in effect people would travel through these passages of communication based on technology and predicted by nature. The “font” used in the piece is an original courier font that was popularized by the typewriter which naturally evolved in to the personal computers we use today. Such as as the one this artwork was realized with. A combination effort of technology, man power, and nature under the umbrella of education…

…from communication education is born on every level. (of the building…)