The Universe And Art

Daddy was working on Saturday, so Ebi-kun and I went on a date to Roppongi to the Mori Arts centre.

We stopped off at the little German market first, there are only a few stalls but it wasn't overly crowded so we grabbed a couple of pretzels and brotwurst and of course Gluwein (for me) for lunch

Then we headed up to the museum. Luckily it wasn't busy, so we outdated our time and saunter around.

It was quite a strange mush mash of exhibits from Leonardo Da Vinci and Galileo to installations by teamLab

As you walk through it kind of takes you through the ages, although I feel they were grasping at straws with some on the items on display it was interesting and enough to keep the kids interested too.

I think the museums are catching on that social media can be free advertising for them. Although you can't photograph everything in the exhibit, there were quite a few pieces marked with a photo ok sign. And social media icons so you can hashtag each one.

Win-win as far as I'm concerned, we get to share what we are up to and they get free publicity.

This exhibit is on until Jan 9th
Www.mori.art.museum

Don't forget to check out the view, it really is stunning in the winter

museum of contemporary art

Once a month my husband works on a Saturday, which is great because I get a mommy + boy date! This time we headed to The Museum Of Contemporary Art In Tokyo, I love this museum but it is quite a trek for us to get to.

The first exhibit was "Whose place is this?" Set up with kids in mind to get them to think about their environment, 4 artists had contributed  and it was pretty cool!

Sorry, photo overload but I absolutely LOVED this room. The walls were all mirrored and the lamps all made from plastic that was washed up on the beach. The German artist Jurgen Lehl had collected all the debris from the island he lives on in Japan. This was great timing for us after just visiting Tamagashima, where there was a lot of rubbish on the beaches.

It's amazing how this rubbish can be turned into something so beautiful, and got us thinking about the rubbish we generate as a family, and how that can be recycled in a better way.

These hoops of light were my favourite. I'm not plotting a way to make something similar!

There is an area I have no photos of because only elementary and JH school kids were allowed in! According to Ebi-kun, inside there were several paintings and sculptures and the helpers would ask questions about how the art made you feel, stressing there is no right or wrong answer and we all interpret art in a different way. Pretty cool but the should have let me in too, I look 13 don't I?

The final room was a cardboard city, lots of tiny cardboard houses stacked up high, they must have been about 4m tall. They also have papers to fill in where you could design your own dream home. I love how they try and involve the kids in the art at such a young age. 

The second exhibit was all about the architect Oscar Niemeyer, Ebi-kun wants to be an architect after he has finished being a pro footballer! It was interesting too but not really a kids exhibit. They do have a Thomas the Tank Engine exhibit on at the moment too but neither of us were interested in that.

One cool section was this, it was an aerial view of one of his designs, a uni I think, made into a carpet. You can see the whole thing from the other exhibit then go down and check it out on ground level.

They also had a video playing showing the actual place in use, very cool but not suitable for little ones as it is all quite delicate!

We had a quick look around the shop then headed into the permanent exhibit hall, Ebi-kun was quite taken with this enormous counter, we checked out the rest of the art, some of it we had seen before. Then went outside to look around.

One of the things I like about this place is the actual building, it is so beautifully designed, makes great use of lines, light and water.

Having fun with the shadows...

Taking a rest...

We finished off by stopping at a cafe just across the road from the museum (they have an English menu too). We just got drinks and a parfait to share before heading back, it take and hour and a half if we are lucky with the train connections! 

There is a park right next door to the museum, so if your kids need to run off some enegy first, it is perfect! Check out more info HERE

And if you are worried about taking your kids to museums and galleries, you need this book! It doesn't have to be scary...

The Gallery & Museum Survival Guide for Parents

Simple Forms at The Mori Museum

After Star Wars we popped into the Simple Forms exhibit as we had already paid. Ebi-kun and I were not very impressed with most of it. Maybe we were just missing the point, but how you can put a pile of stones from the beach in a case and declare it art is beyond me. Kudos to those who can pull it off and make money out of it!

There were a couple of interesting installations, this one had a spinning silver hoop with a light projected on it, making rainbow on the wall. Nice but not overly clever.

This one was though. There were vents in the floor which shot blasts of air up and carried the sheet up and down, strangely relaxing. I can't seem to get the video to load, but if you pop over to my instagram page you can watch it there CLICK HERE (and follow me whilst you're at it! ;)

We didn't stay long as Ebi-kun declared he was starving, if you go to the Star Wars exhibit, then pop in here too but it won't be the end of the world if you miss it!

Me, the boy and Rene Magritte

At the weekend, Daddy-Ebi had an Aikido thing so Ebi-kun and I decided to go and do our own thing. I had a look online and there was a Star Wars Exhibition and a Rene Magritte one. So I asked the boy, which one he wanted to go to, of course he said Magritte!

We left home and travelled in with Daddy-ebi but then he went on his way and we headed into Roppongi, to the National Art Centre. I was glad we had got there early because when we came out the queues just for the tickets were miles long!

The exhibition is great, we are so lucky having world class exhibits so close by. Ebi-kun has seen far more exceptional art by the age of 9 then I had at his age, in fact, I don't remember going to an art gallery until I went to art school! 

Like I suggest in my book "The Gallery And Museum Survival Guide" I put a quiz together before we left. I wish galleries would think ahead and actually make these for the kids, it take next to no time and makes a HUGE difference to the child's experience.

Anyway, we both enjoyed the show, Ebi-kun can now confidently draw parallels to Dali, Picasso and Monet, animatedly talks about how how one influences the other and the conclusions he draws from that. It's not just about the art, when the exhibition is focused on one specific artist, he can now see that the stages of the artist's life are influences to the work, how Margittes work got very dark around the time of World War II for example. And knowing the artist's struggles and hardships is inspiring for him too. I do wish I could introduce music in the same way, but I have neither the passion nor the knowledge to do so!

We couldn't take photos in the exhibit but the National Art Centre is an interesting building in itself...

Then we headed down to Roppongi Mid Town and discovered Godzilla...

I love that there are so many weird and wonderful things around in Tokyo. We had a look around the "posh" shops and I asked Ebi-kun to compare the difference to our local mall. It was interesting to listen to his observations.

Taking time out to stop and really see what is around us is important and I really want Ebi-kun to do that too. Like spotting the rainbows on the roof...

An Intimate Viewing Of The Impressionists...

It was a beautiful day and so on the spur of the moment we decided to head into Tokyo - the process is much easier now our train line actually goes through Tokyo station - Yeah!

Tokyo station is somewhat iconic with it's red brickwork - very unusual in this neck of the world!

We started at the gallery which was showing a collection of impressionist painting, many of them were quite small and so there was no barrier and you could get up close and personal, which was great when it came to talking about the brush strokes and the colours the artists used.

Ebi-kun is getting quite a keen eye and picked out a Monet from across the room then started to see the patterns so he could figure out which were Degas, Manet and Gauguin. He got excited when he spotted a painting from Katie and The Impressionists book and re-told the story to me.

He was also blown away at the 'splodges' that from a distance looked like people or boats etc. There was an old fella watching Ebi-kun who was obviously intrigued at this kid getting excited over the paintings!

The gallery overlooks this lovely little courtyard, quite hard to believe you are in the centre of Tokyo!

We decided to pick up a bento and eat it in the courtyard, big buildings and beautiful blue skies...

Then we decided to have a walk over to the Imperial palace, love this shot of Giant Ebi-kun! With all the office building behind him. It's exceptionally clean in this part of Tokyo, we didn't spot any litter at all and there was a complete lack of bins.

Our next activity was watching tourists getting told off for going over the fence to get photos under the cherry blossom trees, one would have thought this was the only place in Japan with cherry blossom trees! We stayed on the right side of the fence!

And of course, the obligatory sakura shot...