Nawa Kohei: From the outside in

Only a few more days to see the Nawa Kohei mini-show at Maison Hermès in Ginza. If you’ve never seen Nawa’s work up close, here’s your chance. Like many people, perhaps you’ve seen his work in the art press or on shopping bags for Beams, but standing in front of it is a completely different experience.

Nawa’s “Pixcell” series is,  in part, a comment on Internet culture: When you research a topic, whether it be a country, a celebrity or, say, the elk, each Web site you find will provide its own perspective of the subject, further obscuring your view of the subject as a whole and of the other perspectives you encounter.

Now look at the image above again. That’s a real elk under there, and with every step around it,  the view through each glass bead changes in relation to the others, further obscuring what lies beneath the crystalline casing. Some of the larger beads show the fur or antlers in magnified distortion. Other beads simply reflect an inverse world of the beads that surround it.

This is only one of three pieces – and concepts – that Nawa presents in this small (and free) show at the 8th floor of the Hermès building, and it closes Wednesday, so be quick.

Nawa Kohei’s Web site

More images from Nawa’s show at Maison Hermès at Design Boom.

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