On Sunny Sunday, I cycled along the South Bank on the Themes and went to see the Central Saint Martins Graphic Design BA graduate exhibition at the Bargehouse in the Oxo Tower Wharf. My dear friend Agnes was one of the students who were exhibiting their works. She created a collaborated work called ‘Fish & Ships’ with James whom I also know from a few friends’ dinner parties in the past.
…. As graphic designers, we often hook and bait for ideas, and wait patiently for the line to snag. The yang and pull anticipation of what caught the line and finally being able to see the prize drives the work…
The laser-cut origami style fish & ships – the metaphors of graphic design. The yellow submarine for example is like ‘unexpected ideas and different perspectives‘.
Agnes trying to catch one of the paper fish & ships rolled and hidden inside the bottles with the magnetic lids using the magnet-ended fishing line.
I visited a relatively new museum called Kagoshima Museum of Environment. It was a small understated place but I really liked the installation that they had on the wall. It was made out of grids each consists of a collection of random abandoned objects landed on the Japanese seaside. They are fundamentally rubbish items but they are fun to look at like this and make you think & dream (as some of them were drifted from overseas). I like this kind of piece of art.
My grand parents used to live in this house in Ibusuki – country side of Kagoshima. No one lives there anymore but my mum and aunties look after it and spend their weekends sometimes. I love this house, it’s so old and full of old timber.
I enjoyed making Akumaki the traditional preservative food with my aunties and cousins.
How to make Akumaki?
Wash a lot of bamboo shoot skin,
Wrap a cup of sticky rice with the bamboo shoot skin and tie them with the strings,
Boil them in Aku (the plant based ash diluted water) in the biggest cast-iron pot that you can find for over 2 hours – make sure to keep the fire going.
That’s it – simple but hot and heavy duty.
Allocate them for your friends and family.
To be honest, I like making them more than eating…
I attended one of my cousins wedding in the beautifully converted manor house built in the 19 century. It was once owned by one of the prince of Shimazu clan in the Satuma domain (it is now a part of Kagoshima prefecture) that played a major role in the Meiji Restoration that led to enormous changes in Japan’s political and social structure.
The garden was so perfect and flawless, looked almost like a beautiful painting.
One of my favorite things of Kagoshima the volcanic mountain Sakurajima on the background.
I was aware that I hadn’t been updating the blog FOR A WHILE, but I was not aware that nearly 6 months had gone since the last update… now that is pretty slack of me.
I have been working on a few smaller projects this year, taking it slow under the current economic climate with its vague future.
In the mean time, I went back to Japan for 1 month – it’s my first proper holiday in the last 3 years! I am going to upload some of the photos that I took while I was there…
no-one boutique joined forces with the exciting new shopping website www.farfetch.com which unites some of Europe’s best boutiques under one ‘roof’. Of course, you can find some Onagono items there too.
Onagono will have some new items coming out next Spring. Please keep watching!
It happens sometimes… these are images that were taken for some magazines’ editorial shoots in the past, but were never used. But I like them, so I feature them on my blog instead.
A shot with onagono’s black shorts… never used.
A short with onagono’s yellow trousers… never used.
It looks like that already millions of people know about it, but it was only last night, I’ve been introduced to the story of ‘Christian the Lion’ by a friend of mine.
Yes, I know it’s a cheesy short video clip with the cheesy BGM, that makes you doubt, ‘is this really true? ‘ I investigated further… Yes, it is! Christian the lion lived in a flat on London’s King’s Road in the 60s! And later in a few years, thanks to George Adamson, he was successfully introduced into the wild of Africa.
