If I have nice things beside myself, I feel I get something by itself. “The Forms of Transparency” is the exhibition, which is the fair for furniture and products made in collaboration of young designers with small-scale manufacturers around Tokyo.

It is Factory Project that organizes this exhibition. The group started in 2002. They have a broad network of architecture, designer, photographer, editor and so on, with which they work to be the base for total creative design from product development, organizing of exhibition, graphic and web design, architecture to interior design. So far they have performed development and exhibition of original products. Moreover, the group has the aim of inheriting and advancing technique, through collaborative work, that small makers and craftsmen have accumulated. They registered themselves in 2006 as LLP (limited liability partnership) and are now mainly made up of 6 architects and 1 owner of a store for interiors.

Photo: Koji Sakai　

“The Forms of Transparency” is the exhibition, which is the fair for furniture and products made in collaboration of young designers with Sakura Plastics, the corporation which operates through processing acrylic. It was held also in Sapporo, at CAI Contemporary Art Institute, which I visited.

I entered the site and saw relatively small products on the whole wall, and bigger ones are in the center. I slowly walked around to look at them.

It seems that this kind of exhibition, which was artistic, was not so rare on first glance. This exhibition was, however, not only for artistic showcases. The exhibited products were actually to be sold through web or retail store, which I thought was the feature.

I found the list about prices on some of initial sales. There were the numbers of about 10000 to 30000yen, which I thought reasonable for this kind of products. They weren’t one-by-one products and not expensive. The factor showed that this exhibition wasn’t simply artistic, but the exhibitors wanted for purchasers to use them in daily life.

I found each piece great, with which I was able to experience life style of new era. From a technical standpoint, these products were made of beautiful transparent acrylic by acrylic polymerization method. The designs by young designers were arranged by Sakura Plastics to be articles.