• Design

Shiro and Shiro | Makoto Koizumi Exhibition Recap

Our time with Makoto Koizumi flashed by but was just long enough to create a capsule of warm memories. As many of you may know since we speak of it often, Koizumi-san was one of the first designers we met prior to opening the gallery. Along with many other works by him, we simply fell in love with the Tetu Kettle and observed its evolution through multiple iterations to understand how it was made and why. We have spent more than six years following the designer’s career, visiting, admiring, researching, traveling and interviewing him first hand in Tokyo. It goes without saying that the exhibition, Shiro and Shiro, represented not just our inaugural show with the designer, but also an accumulation of stories and experiences we’ve shared throughout our encounters. It was a wonderful feeling having him on our turf for a week.

We hope you enjoy these images from the exhibition!

Koizumi-san is a designer that works with many different kinds of craftsmen. For instance products in all kinds of materials were curated for the exhibition like tin, glass, wood, ceramic and stainless. When you look at the works as a whole there are details that are still very much the essence of Koizumi-san but you can also see the handwork of all the artisans he partners closely with. This really speaks to his human centric design philosophy of working for the benefit of all the people involved, something he touches upon in his exhibition statement. That shared humanistic approach to business is something we’ve always liked about the Koizumi studio.

Each exhibition we collaborate on one new product with the artisan or designer but this time around we had a number of collaborative products to unveil on opening night – trays, plates, vases, clipboards and rulers to name a few. All made of indigenous Japanese wood types. Lately we’ve been in the mindset of sustainability. In many ways, we are trying to revamp our products and services – even the way we ship, to find eco-friendly solutions in recyclable materials. When we learned that one of the makers Koizumi-san works with has accumulated offcuts from their predominant furniture business, we thought it was a great opportunity to give new life to those pieces that would most often pile up and go unused or discarded. In this way, the waste materials are turned into something with a greater purpose.

It was not just the repurposing of materials that we loved but also the excitement of grain selection, especially with Koizumi-san’s keen eye in choosing. We were thoroughly impressed while in Japan when Koizumi-san showed us his process of selecting wood grain patterns for his furniture pieces. He personally identifies the best wood grain pattern for each piece by hand drawing silhouettes as cutting guides for the artisans. We felt this acute consideration to detail from a designer when it comes to larger products can also be relevant in smaller objects. Often times within a hardwood panel lies a variety of tones and textures that the final product can look like a different wood species from one piece to the next. This became especially apparent with the Small Wood Plates for example. Similarly, selecting the right wood grain direction and colour for the Wood Trays, allowed us to maintain near limitless inspiration for the products.

On opening night we all united to add final touches to the displays. We prepped our florals – Sweet Alyssums turned out to be proportionally the perfect flowers for the Wood Vases! Ayako Kurokawa of Burrow came early to prep the refreshments and gave us a sampler of what we’d be serving that evening: White Asparagus Open-Face Sandwiches, Corn Macaron with Corn Potage Cream, Coconut Pâte de Fruit Jelly and Snowball Strawberry Shortcake Cookies! As expected, Ayako interpreted the exhibition theme beautifully making each creation uniquely inspired by Shiro and Shiro.

Many wore all white for the opening to celebrate the occasion. It was a lively night with many old and new friends who were able to meet Makoto Koizumi in person. Some even had their products like the Ori Stool autographed by the designer.

There were a variety of product lines on display from furniture to new designs including our collaborative products. The trays and vases were labeled on the bottom with their wood species in Japanese and English. There were over fifteen wood species and we truly enjoyed seeing guests being selective with the wood grains.

The opening was a blur, as were all the attempts for the obligatory team photo on Extra Place alley that night. Although we’re missing the team in all our white outfits, I’m happy we managed to take one non-blurry image the next day in daylight with Koizumi-san. When I go back into our archives and find early photos of Steve and I with Makoto Koizumi in Tokyo six years ago, I can’t help but feel like we’ve come full circle. We started the store with Koizumi-san’s products and this exhibition was especially fitting because we are soon coming upon our five-year shop anniversary. It’s a bit of a milestone mark for us, and one of the reasons we wanted to have an exhibition with Koizumi-san this year in the first place. It has become increasingly apparent at this stage in our company that what we do is above all people oriented and at the end of the day it’s fulfilling to showcase the people that help you get to where you are.

That being said, thank you to all the wonderful people who followed our behind the scenes prep and made the trek to the exhibition especially on opening night. Also to everyone who played a role in helping us develop this exhibition – the team at Koizumi Studio, Noriyasu Moritada, Aya Nihei, Audrey Kang, Dani Sujin Lee, Owen Smith-Clark, the team at Studio Newwork, Paul Lewis (for the exhibition playlist), John Medley, the team at Burrow, Armando Rafael Moutela, Stefan Ayon, Joshua Skirtich, Yina Shan, and Ainsley Moy. Thank you!