Speaking of wire, my office, Super Potato, used it quite a bit. One of the most memorable uses was at a fashion show for a Japanese fashion brand called PASHU in the 1980s. The models walked down an illuminated runway created by stretching a 1-meter square bundle of 2 mm thick wire that stretched 30 meters. In 1985, toward the end of my years with Super Potato, I designed a fashion store in New York. It was revolutionary, involving approximately 100 wires strung tightly in a radial pattern.
This type of construction was virtually impossible in New York then, so I had craftsmen from Japan complete the work in one week. The usage of wires in spaces became popular around the 1970s, and the origin of this trend must have come from the sculptor Morio Shinoda. He used the term "tension and compression" to describe his semi-figurative and abstract mechanical works. Tracing the roots of his style, Ivan Leonidov and others from the Russian avant-garde (Russian Czonstructivism) period come to mind. There remain models of towers erected with wires and spheres floating in tension, but none were ever achieved. Come to think of it, Rem Koolhaas was also influenced by such effects, which can be vividly seen in his early works. The liberation from gravity is a significant theme shared by Shiro Kuramata. His civil engineering works, such as bridges, look beautiful because they float.
I was asked to design an exhibition stand for ARAKAWA GRIP for the 2007 Japan Shop. It was a house-shaped structure with louver-like window openings and a staircase with wires stretched along like a railing utilizing a pulley to maneuver the wires. I feel that such usage of wires is becoming more conventional today. text by Masaaki Takahashi
