Morigami Jin’s Reclining II

It’s hard enough to see all the gallery exhibitions devoted to architecture in any given New York City week, but if I also try to visit design shows, it takes every waking moment. (I missed the top floor of MoMA’s Home Delivery show, for god’s sake, even though I caught the prefabs on West 54th Street.) New Bamboo: Contemporary Japanese Masters at the Japan Society is a show I read about in the A/N diary and kept thinking: “I should run up and see this.” Well, it closes on Sunday, and I would have never gotten there if New York sculptor Stephen Talasnik had not reminded me that I had promised to look at his bamboo pieces. I ran up this morning, and the show is indeed full of the most extraordinary bamboo designs—from Talasnik’s Bunraku-inspired black basswood and bamboo sculptures, suspended over the central water fountain, to Kawashime Shigeo’s delicate constructions and Morigami Jin’s inwardly-folded Reclining II. For the young architects who think they are creating folded baroque shapes for the first time on CNC milling machines, note well: These objects are all hand made. There is so much more to see, but you need to get there before Sunday afternoon at 5:00! 

Stephen Talasnik’s suspended fountain sculptures

Kawashime Shigeo’s Drawing to the Sky