Located a five-minute walk from Oxford Circus in downtown London, Gallery Libby Sellers is hosting a joint Japanese-British design exhibition, "Marking," co-organized by the British Council and Japanese furniture label E&Y, until the 25th of this month. The exhibition features 16 Japanese and British designers, selected from a wide range of fields, from graphic and interactive design to architecture and fashion, including "mame" designer Maiko Kurokawa and architects Jo Nagasaka and Ryuji Nakamura. Along with new sculptures, the exhibition also features objects that have influenced each of the designers' work, under the theme of "fragment." The exhibition also aims to go beyond simply showcasing their works and provide a deeper understanding of the designers. While listing each designer's birth year next to their name may be somewhat of a taboo in the UK, where discrimination based on age is prohibited, this attempt allows for a deeper insight into the context surrounding each designer and their work, based on the generation and background in which they were born and raised. A talk event held at the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation on the evening of the 10th also sparked an engaging discussion, including differences in design education between Japan and the UK, differences in design itself, and the possibility that these differences may be due to differences in lifestyle. After the event, I spoke with Tsuyoshi Matsuzawa, president of E&Y Co., Ltd., who explained that "in the UK, design is deeply integrated and deeply rooted in everyday life." This background, he pointed out, "Even the average person has a high level of receptivity and absorption of design. While Europe has cities like Milan, which are considered design meccas, London is the most deeply integrated into everyday life, and this is one of its greatest attractions."

Although Japanese design is currently gaining high acclaim, there is still much to learn from the UK in terms of "the closeness of design to everyday life," and he says, "Gaining (such) insight is not something that can be achieved overnight, and the absolute amount of experience and exposure needed to understand design is still lacking."

It is my hope that with more design exhibitions like this one, which crosses over between Japan and Europe, Japanese design culture will truly take root in our lives.
【Event Information】
"Mark-ing"
Location: Gallery Libby Sellers
Address: 41-42 Berners Street, London
Dates: 10th to 25th January 2013
Time: 11:00 to 18:00 (until 16:00 on Saturdays)
Closed: Sundays and Mondays
Participating Artists:
[Japan] Makoto Orisaki, Koichi Okamoto, Tsune Nagasaka, Ryuji Nakamura, Risa Fukui, Koichi Futamata, Yuri Suzuki, Maiko Kurokawachi
[UK] Moritz Waldmeyer, Izumini Samanidou, Paul Cocksedge, Max Lamb, Geoffrey Mann, Helen Amy Murray, Hannah Martin, Benjamin Hubert