Contemporary Art Gallery

Taku Satoh : DESIGNS IN ORDINARY LIVES

October 21 (Sat.),2006,to January 14 (Sun.),2007

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Installation view at Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito

The activities of the designer Taku Satoh span a broad variety of genres. Not only has he been responsible for the design of familiar products used by people in their daily lives in Japan, such as Asahi Breweries' Nikka Pure Malt whisky, Lotte's Xylitol Gum, and Meiji Dairies' "Oishii Gyunyu" (milk), he has also served as a planning member and art director for NHK Education's Japanese-language series, "Nihongo de Asobo (Let's Play with Japanese)," among many other projects.

Satoh's designs don't grab people's eye on account of being flashy or unusual, but rather emphasize aspects that are taken for granted in our everyday lives. No one can criticize him for "overdesign" or excessive self-expression, but yet, he has developed a distinctive design style that is uniquely his. In addition to his product-design work, Satoh is also energetically involved in various art projects, such as the "Anatomy of Design" and "Barbershop Sign" projects. His product designs and art projects help us to realize how the things we see everyday -- and thus hardly notice -- are in fact very interesting and appealing. In that respect, perhaps all of what he does can be described as "art."

The exhibition at Art Tower Mito encompasses almost all of Satoh's activities so far, and also introduces, for the first time ever, several individual and collaborative projects produced especially for the exhibition.