“Social Dress Buffalo – The Past Reflecting the Future” June 18, 2010 – Sunday August 7, 2010
A Meet&Greet with Takashi including a presentation, workshop, and latex casting demonstration will take place on Friday, May 21, 2010 from 12-2 p.m. at Buffalo ReUse, located at 298 Northampton Street, Buffalo.

This will be a great opportunity for everyone to meet and learn more about the artist’s process.  We hope you can make it!  PLEASE NOTE:  Those with latex allergies are welcome to attend but are advised not to participate in the casting process, as pure liquid latex will be used.

Please see the following videos which explain Takashi’s project in Buffalo:
Takashi video Part 1 | Takashi video Part 2 | Takashi video Part 3

A major component of Takashi’s work is conversations with local activist groups such as Buffalo ReUse and PUSH Buffalo – organizations that have expressed interest in the project – that address the ideas behind the construction of this small-scale monument. Inspired by the simple solutions such as urban gardens and community-building activities, this project is intended to inspire a sense of togetherness and similarity of purpose within the community so as to foster empowerment among local citizens that may inspire creativity in local responses to this ongoing crisis.

During the early twentieth century, architects posited shapes such as the dome or sphere as the future of architecture. Possessing unique iconic forms and the virtue of increased structural strength at a low material cost, these architectural shapes became closely tied to utopian counter-culture movements (Burning Man) and futuristic model communities (Drop City or the Libre Community in Colorado). Geodesic domes and Dymaxion homes like prefab and modular housing methods that were developing in parallel, accomplished their goals by drawing on concepts implicit within modernist design such as mass production, simplification, dismissal of ornamentation and focus on functionality. While I do not suggest that these are the forms future Buffalo area housing should take, the dome is a symbol of the impulse to decrease construction costs, maximize use of space and materials, and conserve energy costs necessary to create a better housing infrastructure and a sustainable future, and as such forms one of the bases of this project. However, recognizing the flaw inherent in these easily replicable but ultimately impersonal structures that makes them undesirable to large swaths of the population, I also draw upon “primitive” designs that are more individual but still efficient in design and cost, such as the yurt and the wigwam, in designing the colorful patchwork of the skin of this structure. While not proposing that we should revert back to a time pre-industrialization, I think a reconsideration of the psychological effects and practical considerations (mobility, ease of construction, strength, accessibility of low-cost materials) that are implicit to these designs is a key to finding novel, sustainable solutions to housing problems.

The dome Takashi proposes is to be constructed as a monument to the past that also serves as inspiration for the future. Constructed to the dimensions of an average adult using a metal conduit understructure, it will be covered with latex skins of various shapes and colors cast from existing vacant housing in abandoned neighborhoods around Buffalo. Showing the individual hands of those whom I work with through their chose of color and skin-shape, and incorporating – through the casting process – the distinctive details that make these abandoned houses desirable but unaffordable, this hybrid futuristic-primitive structure will be constructed as a meeting place for conversation and consideration. While the exterior will simply look attractive by virtue of its colorful collage-like appearance, the interior will reveal the history of Buffalo’s neighborhoods through the replicated surfaces of her homes.

Takashi’s website and e-mail:
www.takashihorisaki.com
takasher {at} gmail(.)com

Buffalo Arts Studio website:
www.buffaloartsstudio.org