The Tokyo Art Book fair was one of the most
stunning gatherings of creativity I’ve experienced in one place since coming to
Japan. Although I love living in the countryside, it’s the masses of creativity
that can be experienced in the city that I miss, so I was determined to visit. I
set off early in the morning on the three hour train to Tokyo, ready to read.
The fair
was being held at Tohoku University of Art and Design (Gaien Campus), on three
beautifully sunny days. The campus was easy to find, just a few minutes’ walk
from the station. I visited on the final day, a Monday, 21st of
September. Apparently, the first two days had been quite packed, so I was glad
to be there early Monday to avoid the crowds. There were still a lot of people
around, so my giant hiking bag was a little distracting, but I later managed to
put it behind a table and wander around more freely. The fair started out in
the courtyard with a selection of delicious looking food (and each stall with
some cookbooks or trinkets that matched the culinary theme) and led into a
corridor, with a number of rooms to choose from.
The ground
floor held one large “international” room, with vendors selling photobooks from
all over the world, whereas the smaller rooms were dedicated to less well-known
exhibitors, some tended to by the photographers themselves. It was great to see
some zines and university students displaying their wares, and I was impressed
by the sheer talent and creativity crammed into one building.
The upper
floor held even more stalls, separated into smaller rooms, and one larger area
dedicated to printing. The printing room – oh the printing room! There were
reams of paper, from stacks of B5 to paper that could have served as a small
bed, carefully piled on wooden pallets. It was stationery heaven. Although I
resisted buying any books for myself (buying a single one would have unleashed
a floodgate), I did pick up a rather interesting notebook. Rather than paper,
it’s a few whiteboard pages spiral-bound together. It came with a thin
whiteboard marker and eraser, and seemed rather useful for classes, so I parted
with ¥2,000 yen for it – rather pricey for a normal notebook, but not that bad
when you consider that it’s good just about forever! When I took it home and
opened it up, I noticed four squares on each page, one on each corner – very
much like what you see for QR codes. Following that line of thought, I did a brief internet search on the brand and figured out that there was an accompanying
application that allowed me to scan and upload any notes I wanted to save onto
my phone! Very handy. I could easily just snap a photograph, of course, but the
app cleans up the note a little and organizes it a bit better. I think it’s a bit
like Evernote.
I couldn’t
resist buying a bunch of poetry postcards either. As I browsed through the
rooms (I genuinely went through each one at least thrice, finding new things to
catch my eye each time), I was hearing a mix of both Japanese and English, but
a particular accent caught my ear as I walked by a table. It was Singlish, so I
stopped to have a chat and look through what they had to offer. I have an
especial soft spot for anything from Malaysia and Singapore, so I may have
just… bought the entire set. Um. Moving on. Sarah and Schooling were the company present at the school, and I
discovered an excellent Singaporean poet, Joshua Ip, whose poetry was embossed
on the cards. I tried to purchase a book online, but it seems they’re all sold
out.
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| Spoils of Singapore |
I also
found an old friend working the stalls at Shashasha, a
photography gallery based in Shibuya. They showcase Japanese and Asian photographers,
and even offer an app to view the photographers they publish! It’s pretty
forward thinking, and they had a good range of books. I was fascinated by the
dreamy black and white photos by Kiyoshi Suzuki
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| Kiyoshi Suzuki, Aus Mind Games, 1982 |
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| Kiyoshi Suzuki, The town of circus tent 1983 |
Another of my friends is doing an internship with a German
publisher, Kehrer. I’m so glad he found me (I drifted past the stall before
he spotted me and called me back), because I discovered a new photographer who
I’ve become slightly obsessed with – Vee Speers. Her style is very light and
exposed; simple backgrounds, focusing on a single subject in a photo. The book
I saw, Bulletproof, was a 6 year project in the making. Speers took photos of
children in dress-up, posed, masked, uncertain, young. Then, years later, she
returned to do the same, but showing their growth and change, adding strange,
fighting props to signify how they have to adapt to the world around them. Some
might call it pretentious and unoriginal, but I felt she really captured the
atmosphere and vulnerability of the current generation. The fairy-tale vibe
works well with their bizarre costumes.
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| Vee Speers, Bulletproof |
The Tokyo Art Book fair is an annual event, and one well worth visiting. Keep your calendars free in 2016 mid-September, and go have a look at the mad stacks of creativity for yourself! I felt pretty inspired by the whole thing and went out for a photowalk with a friend the following weekend. But that is another post for another day.
~x.jaz.x.~
