Tokyo Evolution 2021
A story of a country can be read in its cities, and no city in recent years has better expressed Japan’s success story than Tokyo. Today, most visitors find Tokyo to be one of the most advanced cities in the world. Displays of progressive architecture and cutting-edge fashion abound in Tokyo. This exhibition examines Tokyo’s evolution in this integral pair of aspects of urban life, Architecture and Fashion from 1964 to the present, and beyond. In presenting this exhibition to coincide with Tokyo’s second hosting of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, we hope that Tokyo Evolution shows the audience what a city can accomplish in 50 years, and the even brighter future awaiting it.
Originally meant to be an in-person exhibit in 2020, with the onset of covid and its subsequent waves and postponement of the Olympics, the Tokyo Evolution exhibit has gone through various transformations: in person, virtual, and finally, hybrid. The work I am showing below were a part of the final hybrid online and in person form of the exhibition. I created virtual elements for our website and online exhibition and panels and window decals for our in person Tokonoma JICC display.
Tokonoma JICC is a window display where pedestrians can enjoy a shortened version or special topic from the current JICC exhibition. The idea of Tokonoma JICC comes from a small space in Japanese tearooms called tokonoma, in which the host of the tea ceremony welcomes the guests with a small display such as a flower arrangement or artwork.