Directed by:
ISSEY MIYAKE
Exhibition design:
TADAO ANDO
Visual direction:
KOHEI SUGIURA
Photography:
HIROSHI IWASAKI
21_21 Design Sight website
Issey Miyake
website
There are certain projects which stand out in someone’s life and are special on many levels. For Jennifer Lee, U-Tsu-Wa was such an event. A unique convergence of ideas and people. In particular it was a chance to work with Issey Miyake, who first became aware of Jennifer’s work in 1990 and whose clothes Jennifer loves and has worn ever since. It took twenty years for a joint project to be realised, making it all the more significant.
It is also a rare honour for a British potter to exhibit in Japan where there is such a strong tradition of ceramics and the appreciation of its importance is so widespread. Pots are revered in Japan. U-Tsu-Wa was attended by 40,000 people and received over seventy reviews.
The exhibition was held in the Miyake Issey Foundation design museum, 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo. The building was designed by Tadao Ando in 2007. For this exhibition Ando came back to 21_21 and designed an extraordinary installation. Each artists’ work was laid out in the constellation of their astrological star sign. Ernst Gamperl’s wooden bowls rested on a bed of crushed glass. The pots of Jennifer Lee and Lucie Rie appeared to float on a vast shimmering pool of gently moving water behind which cascaded a 100 foot wide waterfall.
21_21 Design Sight