The exhibition "On the Beach: Jurgen Lehl - Messages from the Sea" will be held at the Towada Art Center in Aomori from October 8th to February 5th, 2017.

Jurgen Lehl was active as a textile designer in Paris and New York in the 1960s, before moving to Japan in the early 1970s. In 1972, he launched his own fashion brand, Jurgen Lehl, and designed clothing, interior items, furniture, kitchenware, and more, becoming a pioneer in designing lifestyles in general. In 2006, he founded Babaghuri, a brand that values handmade craftsmanship using environmentally friendly natural materials. Jurgen, who built a farm and home on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa, felt sadness and anger at the endless trash washing up on the beach. He then assembled colorful plastic waste he had collected himself from ocean-dumped waste to create beautiful, practical, and evocative lighting fixtures, hoping to draw attention back to the natural world that is the root of human life. Although he passed away in an accident in September 2014, the lighting fixtures he left behind have been exhibited at Artipelag in Stockholm, Sweden, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, and the Kyotographie International Photography Festival. This exhibition, centered on the lighting fixtures he transformed from plastic waste into beautiful illuminated objects, features approximately 140 works, including Jurgen's own photographs capturing the contrast between Okinawa's beautiful and polluted oceans, presented in the unique spatial layout of the Towada Art Center. A special exhibit will also be the photography by Chris Jordan, who uses video and photographs to capture the demise of seabirds living on the Midway Islands in the Pacific Ocean as they eat plastic.

[Event Information]
"On the Beach: Jurgen Lehl's Message from the Sea"
Venue: Towada Art Center
Dates: October 8, 2016 - February 5, 2017
Time: 9:00 - 17:00 (last admission 30 minutes before closing)
Admission: Special exhibition + permanent exhibition set ticket: 1,000 yen; individual special exhibition ticket: 600 yen
Closed: Mondays (or the following day if a public holiday falls on Monday)