I spent over a week exploring Tokyo (barely scratched the surface) and of all of the areas I spent time in, I’m going to say Yanaka was my favourite. It’s part of Tokyo’s “Old Town” and known for the high concentration of temples (70 something in Yanaka.) This little collection of photos includes a small part of one of those temples but is about the gorgeous surrounding concrete wall..! I love it. If you’ve been following for a while or you scroll back a few years, you’ll know, or find, that it’s not the first time I’ve professed my love for a wall and a concrete one at that.
Facades
Arimasuton. Tokyo’s "Zombie Fish" Building
in Architecture, Construction, Fine Art, Fixations, Travel, Japan
You may or may not know that I jetted off to Japan for two weeks last year. As you can imagine, I took a lot of photos. How to share them with you has perplexed me a bit as there are many ways I could shape them into little collections. I still haven’t come to any great conclusion so I thought I’d just begin. And begin with something very unique!
This is Arimasuton, Tokyo’s "Zombie Fish" Building and a handmade, concrete masterpiece. Tokyo’s small scale, lesser known answer to Gaudí, if you like.
Architect Keisuke Oka is the owner and builder of Arimasuton, which can be found in Tokyo’s Mita district, a lavish and upscale suburb where the building stands out and strangely fits in too. For over twenty years Keisuke, along with friends, family, students and neighbours, has crafted the building by hand, from concrete.
Though finished in 2024 the surrounding buildings have been demolished making way for a large-scale development leaving Oka no choice but to shift, yes actually shift, the building back 10 metres away from the construction site, which is what is taking place in my images below. I did attempt to get closer but was quickly ushered away by the polite security guarding the site. I am looking forward to revisiting in the future to see it settled and likely dwarfed amongst it’s future giant neighbours!
Fixation 8
It’s been a little while since I shared a fixation. I’ve got a number waiting in the wings to share with you but this one, shot no too long ago, has jumped the queue. A bit like the last fixation, where I stumbled across something new in old territory, this one is just down the road from me in Richmond. It’s a carpark. Did you know I like carparks? Thing is, although I’m not traipsing through Richmond on foot all that often, I can’t believe I’ve never seen this before, in the 20 (wow!), yes 20 years that I’ve been living in Melbourne. Clearly this lot has been vacant for some time and likely a carpark for much of that time.
So this little gem of a site has all the things that cause me to fixate. Concrete, strong lines, colour, a touch of detritus, repetition, natural elements creeping in and the added bonus of the new and old stood together and also in the distant background.
To top it all off the sun was shining, I’ll revise that to beating, and the sky was perfect blue. A happy little occasion indeed.
Fixation 7
I went out looking for a new wall, longer story - I won’t go into that, and found a fixation instead. I’ve explored a lot of Melbourne’s streets and laneways over my years of photography so it’s always a surprise and delight when I come across something new. In this case something old, made new, by Hilton if I recall correctly.
Duality
So many thoughts swirling around my head about the series I’m sharing here. I thought it was going to be a fixation to begin with but this is bigger. I’ve long pondered what draws me to the intersection of contradictions; new and old, natural and built, dark and light, straight and curved and so on and thought it was just a matter of visual interest. What I’ve come to realise through much reading, talking and searching is that it’s much deeper than that. It’s a desire to understand the contradictions, the dichotomies, the dualities within myself. There’s too much to say on this to say it all here, but I’ll leave you with this. For all the time I’ve been looking at places where the natural environment meets the built, I thought, as someone who loves and respects nature, that I was cheering for the nature, when actually my heart lies with the built, in this case the house. My metaphor was back to front.
*Side note. There are too many photos here, I know, but in my defence I spent time with this house on two seperate days and took close to 300 photos. It was hard to choose!
**Side note two, I could have done a fixations series on the lacy curtains alone.
Fixations 6
It’s time to share another of my fixations. Adelaide is still giving here and if you’ve been playing along for a while you can probably tell me what I love about this inner city, industrial scene… feel free to say so in the comments if you’re brave… if you’re new here click the #fixations tag above and you’ll get the idea!
Fixations 5
Fixations 5. Still in Adelaide (not now, at the time of taking). If you’ve been following this series of me obsessing over fairly ordinary things, you can probably tell me what I love about this little scene… but in case you haven’t, here it is… colour, obviously. Strong lines and shadows - also obvious. Perhaps less obvious is the contrasting texture of those bricks sitting alongside the smooth concrete and bitumen. And of course there’s that ever present sense of isolation. It was also the way it revealed itself to me as I made my way down the lane. Those colourful little buildings sitting amongst the surrounding concrete giants were like a little oasis in the hot Adelaide sun. That’s all.
Fixations 3
So here we are again. Fixated. This time in Adelaide and quite some time ago. What is it I’m seeing?
Colour plays a part here. The palette of this little scene reminds me, somewhat cringingly and somewhat fondly of a check shirt I wore in the nineties - blue, beige and brown. And I can’t resist a bit of yellow, divisive as it is as a colour.
From colour to texture - organic and manmade - rocks and stone, contrasting with the industrial elements of iron, steel and aluminium.
What else? Lines. Always lines. Lines of different widths and heights and orientations - repeating, crossing, meeting. Curved lines to interrupt the straight. Order in the chaos.
There’s a hint of pareidolia (google it) - though I’m never seeking it or deliberately framing for it.
Finally it’s the little reminders of the natural environment to soften the industrial hardness - soft clouds, palm tree and even a little shadow.
There’s just something about industry that draws me in as it did one of my favourite Australian painters and significant influencer of my work, Geoffrey Smart.
