Frangipani has a gallery of some beautiful manhole covers in Japan. Some of them are very colourful.
Updated 2015: links broken, but google them :)
japan
Kamoné
Oh yeah, the World EXPO also has a pavilion mascot, a platypus called Kamoné. She was designed by Melbourne-based illustrator, artist, toy designer and storyteller Nathan Jurevicius, best known for his Scarygirl series of toys, comics and products.
The drawings are pretty cool and there are various versions of her: dancing, just herself, in a long dress, playing soccer, with ipod and backpack, with tote and pencil, as an artist? (interestingly this isn’t used – maybe its not clear enough), and as a scientist.
There is also a bodysuit puppet of her. There are numerous pictures in the Australian Pavilion image gallery, such as this one of her supervising the unloading of the platypus exhibit (minus her gloves). And here Kamoné is at Tokyo Station, meeting her friends the official Aichi Expo mascots, Kiccoro and Morizo, a forest child and a forest grandfather.
One other thing. There is nice flash graphic at EXPO2005, though its a pity you have to scroll down to get both images.
The Making of the EXPO Giant Platypus
You might have seen pictures in the news of the Prime Minister and his wife dwarfed by a giant platypus, on the occasion of the opening of the Australian Pavilion at the World Expo in Aichi, Japan a couple of weeks ago. It was made by a team assembled by the Melbourne production company, think!OTS, and there are some images of the platypus there, if you check their portfolios.
Yesterday I was delighted to also find photos of the making of the platypus exhibit at Australia at Aichi World Expo 2005 in their Pavilion Photo Gallery. Starting with an artist’s impression, they move on to show how the over-all shape was constructed out of foam, filled with plaster, coated with concrete and covered with leather and soft fur. It’s not clear to me from that description how they end up with hollow sections, but I’m guessing that its the concrete layer that forms the shell. The platypus measures about 11 metres.Here are a few other picture links:
‘Our Mary’ and Prince Frederick with the platypus
‘Our Mary’ sits on its tail
Mr and Mrs Howard with the platypus: 1,2 (both photos by Penny Bradfield)
Update: Platy-cam! (not available anymore)
Japanese Design Motifs
Meggiecat is a constant source of interesting art-craft-image-related notes. Her link to Japanese Free Clip Art the other day provided this lovely swallowtail butterfly image, for instance.
The designs reminded me of a book called ‘Snow, Wave, Pine:Traditional patterns in Japanese Design’ by Motoji Niwa and Sadao Hibi, which I sometimes page through in the bookshop. Its a beautiful collection of photographs of classic decorative patterns on a wide variety of objects (for example robes, laquerware, swords and ceramics), and many drawings of family crests and stylized motifs.
