Curator Katie Somerville of the National Gallery of Victoria has worked with Japanese-born Australian designer Akira Isogawa to create an exhibition of recent work that shows how Isogawa's work is inspired and developed as well as the finished objects. Displayed on cut-out oversized dolls, a key element of the design is the influence of origami, but reinvented anew.
Curator: Katie Somerville
Artist: Akira Isogawa
Partner: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Tour: Melbourne, Singapore, Manila, Bangkok, New Delhi, Mumbai (2005-2007)
The impact of this solo exhibition by a leading Australian artist, in this case Japanese-born but Australian (tertiary) educated fashion designer Akira Isogawa, was multiform: a beautiful and creative show that revealed the artist’s thinking, a show of a leading internationally recognised designer, and the revelation of how a creative person from one strong and influential culture like Japan can find greater freedom to explore both his heritage and his new surroundings, in those new surroundings. The exhibition focused on the creative process that Isogawa embarked upon over a five month period in the lead up to the presentation of his spring/summer collection in Paris in 2004. This elusive process, which is not usually accessible to the public, was revealed through a range of objects, working drawings, sounds, images and completed garments, something acknowledged by visitors at various venues. Said one commentator in Singapore: ‘It’s brilliant to see Akira Isogawa’s work and also his thought/work processes throughout the whole collection’. And a reviewer in Manila wrote ‘a cursory look at the exhibit is simply inexcusable, because Isogawa’s works require a thorough study… It is well worth the time of anyone seriously pursuing a career in design’ (C. Mendez Legaspi, Business Mirror, 20 January 2006).