This last Saturday I got the chance to go to the final Art Aquarium exhibition in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. The event had been a re-occurring one, having been held annually for the past 9 years at the Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall. The website and write up explained that the plan was to relocate to Kumamoto, out on the west side of Japan, but the recent earthquake terminated the plans.
The Coredo building that housed the Mitsui Hall was itself more sophisticated and higher class than I am used to seeing, having spent most of my time in the west side of Tokyo. The decor was generally fancy, sleek, and of a modern minimalist taste. Art Aquarium was on the fourth floor, and on reaching the venue's entrance we were greeted by staff in reddish-orange shirts with the exhibition's name printed on them. As is usual in Japan, pathways for entry and exit were cordoned off and were provided with ample signage. After getting tickets checked, we went up another flight of stairs to the exhibition floor.
An area of souvenir stalls greeted us on the main floor. There were various trinkets such as bead bracelets, wind chimes, and artistic cloths called tenugui being sold. Just past the souvenir area were tables where other guests were chatting or enjoying drinks, posters around them advertising the same drinks they had. These drinks were of course related to the event, and were incredibly expensive for what they were. I was absolutely not willing to pay 1,500 yen (roughly $15) for a chocolate mint cocktail with goldfish shaped marshmallows. We walked past the first bar and into the area where the tanks were.
The exhibition was sizable, and there was a lot to look at considering the space that was available. Tokyo has a tendency to have smaller venues for events, but this hall was noticeably larger despite the monolithic tanks that took up large chunks of the area. The centrepiece was clearly the main attraction: a giant fountain that was designed to look like some type of flower filled with hundreds of goldfish. On the far side of the exhibition room were three other large tanks; in the corners were two identical fish tanks that were designed to look like they were traditional Japanese paper walls. In the middle of the two was another larger tank that used mirrors to play with the perspective of the viewer. In this main hall, ambient music reminiscent of sci-fi movies played, giving the room an atmosphere of posh decadence in an almost stereotypical fashion.
Hidden in their own smaller rooms were two other pieces with individual tracks. One of them was a tank shaped like a haori, or traditional Japanese overcoat, installed flush into a wall. Occasionally, bursts of what looked like red dye appeared to diffuse from the top of the tank. It was unclear if it was an image projection, but I assumed that was so. After all, it wouldn't be very good for an exhibition of goldfish tanks to have dead fish floating around. This piece had a more traditional song played for it, although it was given a modern techno feel to match with the rest of the exhibition.
The other hidden tank was shaped like a hot tub. The tank was built around a headless female mannequin in a bathrobe, posed to look like she was enjoying a spa day with a cosmopolitan in her hand. The lights shining on the mannequin remained pink, unlike the changing colours of the rest of the exhibition. Above the piece and over our heads were fish tanks that made it look like goldfish were flying over trellises. In this area, the music was the most calm to reflect match the "spa day" theme of the piece.
There were a couple of things that I noticed that were not so positive, apart from the exorbitant pricing of the refreshments. A lot of the larger tanks had lights installed inside of them, which may be of concern to people with a conscience for the fish. Near the exit of the exhibition area next to the second bar were also individual write-ups about each of the tanks inside. An observant eye would notice many editing errors in the English portions: fonts were largely mismatched, sizes differed, and even grammar was incorrect in some of the paragraphs.
Despite that, the exhibition was quite a sight to see overall. The whole area took roughly an hour to peruse. I can imagine that purchasing a drink and taking more pictures would stretch the time spent inside longer. For an entry price of 1000 yen (roughly $10) I would say it was worth checking out. Hopefully a similar type of exhibition will appear again in Tokyo.
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