Author Archives: Jonelle Patrick

November 04

Chrysanthemums Like You’ve Never Seen Before

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The fall leaves aren’t winning any awards this year in Tokyo, so thank whatever gods are in charge of making autumn insta-worthy that there are still chrysanthemums! Yes, it’s time once again for your socks to be knocked right off, with…   These photos are from the 2018 displays at the Yushima Shrine and Kameido […]

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November 02

Smart Illumination Yokohama 2018: ALL THE YES

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Woo hoo, it’s time for the annual art-as-entertainment Yokohama Smart Illumination 2018! This year, for some reason it took a giant leap in quality, and although the artspeak “explaining” each piece is equally opaque in Japanese and English, you don’t need to know what the artist was trying to say in order to have a […]

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October 31

The Shiba Inu Vending Machine

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  Finally! A series of shiba inu gachagacha toys made by an artist who understands that these devilish dogs are not just unbearably adorable, they come packed with a level of eccentric that makes eel-flavored ice cream look like vanilla. I found these in a gachapon machine on the 6th floor of the Akihabara Yodobashi […]

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October 26

A Portrait Of The Algorithm As A Young Man

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Machines may not be able to find you the date of your dreams, but they sure can paint. This art is being made by an algorithm. A “life game” algorithm, to be exact. All decisions about which ink to drop and where to drop it are remotely controlled by the ever-changing calculation that predicts the […]

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October 24

Swimming With The Neon Fish

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Come on, even you exquisitely jaded experience junkies want to do this, admit it! I’ve been to TeamLab’s “Planets” exhibition before, but this week I jumped into the newest version and it did not disappoint. The offerings were generally the same, but they’ve been freshened up so that the experience was just as much fun […]

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October 19

November Can’t Come Too Soon

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Somehow, charcoal-flavored cocoa is a vice I’ve managed to avoid acquiring until now, and I feel it’s in my best interests to keep it that way…. • When not avoiding parallel universes where chocolate and charcoal are a desirable combination, Jonelle Patrick writes  novels set in Tokyo…

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September 22

Failed Rock Gardens Of Japan

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Nobody’s going to deny that rock gardens are one of the great art forms of Japan. I mean, who doesn’t enjoy an exquisitely designed miniature landscape of meticulously raked gravel… …swirling around a few mindfully placed boulders? Plus, compared to even your most basic Japanese garden, they’re really low-maintenance. I mean, once you plant a […]

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