On the occasion of publishing Tokyo Totem, A Guide to Tokyo (Flick Studio, 2015) UltraSuperNew Gallery is hosting an exhibition in which ideas from the book will be unpacked, elaborated and explored.
A totem can be understood as a personal guide or an emblem that serves some group as a homing device, an orientation or a rallying point. In Tokyo there are many totems. Walking its many streets one encounters emblems that signify, for example, certain spirits or gods, fashion tribes, neighborhoods, consumer preferences, professions, or corporate affiliations. But these totems also exist within you. Perhaps your designer eye can’t help seeing the typical color spectrum of the city, or perhaps your musical ear is eager to block out the 5 o’clock tune that signals the end of school. The title of this book is an ode to these many social and deeply personal signifiers, which somehow help Tokyoites navigate their infinite cityscape, and it also represents our wish that you may find your own totems.
The exhibition is a co-production between makers of the book, Monnik and Studio RooieJas, and the Eddie the Eagle Museum, and will show work of: Aukje Dekker, Arthur van Beek, Yasutaka Yoshimura, Jasper van den Berg, Edwin Gardner, Christiaan Fruneaux, Simon Wald-Lasowski and Keez Duyves (PIPS:lab)
