POLA is a
cosmetics firm based in Japan, which was founded in Shizuoka nearly 100 years
ago! It started out as a chemical products firm, but quickly branched out. It’s
an international brand now, but still mostly popular within Japan, and not that
well known outside the islands. There are a lot of branches dotted around, and
I’ve toyed with the idea of getting a facial done at one of them but have not
yet got round to doing so. However, POLA also has an art foundation; giving
scholarships and sponsoring works around Japan.
They also own
a well-stocked museum in Hakone; Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Pablo
Picasso and Léonard Foujita are represented within the museum’s collection.
It’s definitely worth a visit, and Hakone isn’t far out from Tokyo at all. I’ve
visited once, and was rather impressed both by the indoor and outdoor
esthetics; I’d like to go back and do a photoshoot sometime. In the meantime,
I’ll make do with the cute gift shop stuff my friends bought for me – a rather
crazy looking Monet post-it set, and a badge with a popular Renoir painting.
Japan really knows how to market things – I have more stuff here than I know what to do with, all of it cute or memorable
or somehow unpartable with.
There’s an
art annex above their store in the midst of the upmarket district of Ginza, so
we went to have a gander at what it had to offer. It’s not a particularly large
gallery – just the one room, but what it had to offer was very enjoyable.
This
particular exhibit, Crystal Universe, was a combination of colour-changing LEDs
in a darkened room, accompanied by music. The Japan Times provides a little more background
on the event:
“Artist
collective teamLab was founded in 2001, and its members include artists,
programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians, architects, designers and
editors. Its work, therefore, has always been of a sophisticated artistic and
technological nature. For the Pola Museum, it is turning the building’s annex
gallery into an atmospheric interactive space, using 60,000 LEDs in a 3-D form.”
I just re-read it myself, and visitors could somehow adjust the lights through the website, so I wish I had knows that! We were absolutely mesmerized by the lights and colours. I wished that the short bursts of music/color were a little longer – each phrase was around a thirty seconds maximum, and I felt that something longer could have been orchestrated to keep the audience’s attention longer, instead of constantly waiting and wanting for more. Still – can’t complain. I’m an absolute sucker for lights and colours – fireworks, fireflies… winter illuminations are the bright spot in an otherwise cold and dank season.
You can check out their upcoming exhibitions here. I’m intrigued by November’s “Hats Off!” – I’ll probably pop by and let you know what they’re like!
Location: Pola
Museum Annex; Pola Ginza Bldg. 3F, 1-7-7 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Free
admission.
