Art Heaven

When I headed off to the Mori Museum of Contemporary art I didn't realize exactly where it was - I had the address but when they lead me into a hallway and opened an elevator door I didn't realize I was going to the 53 floor of the brand new skyscraper. Typical Tokyo... playing with your mind and your expectations at every possibility... It's an amazing building, made all the more amazing by a monumental sculpture by Louise Brooks that faces the entrance: it's called 'Maman'. Somehow oddly appropriate, to have this huge pregnant spider in front of a building that houses mostly international law and finance offices...





I saw an exhibition of new 'avant-garde' (whatever that means... surely they're basically the same thing now) Japanese art. Some absolutely extraordinary work. Perhaps its something to do with the Japanese character, but the work that most impressed me was the work that seemed very based on craft. A photographer had constructed the most beautiful tiny objects - a series of slides of related images that were placed one a top each other. They were lit from beneath and you would stare down into these tiny constructions of layers and layers of transparent photographs.... incredibly tiny, but a quality of depth and time that was remarkably beautiful, reminded me of the English landscape artist, Andy Goldworthy.





along with the entrance to the museum came a walk around the viewing platform on the floor below. Tokyo is an awe inspiring, and rather frightening sight... it just stretches out to infinity... oddly, and I'm not sure the video captures this, around the tower are several tiny graveyards wedged behind new buildings... Brian Eno seemed to be good choice for a soundtrack for the view