The NAFA Gallery retrospective ‘Beauty born, not made: Sori Yanagi’ is an exhibition of the life, works and philosophy of one of Japan’s greatest product designers. Catch it while you can.

Sori Yanagi Pop Up 1

Sori Yanagi (1915 – 2011) is one of the most famous product designers in Japan; the designer of furniture, drinking fountains, man-hole covers (!), Olympic cauldrons, pedestrian overpasses, and more. He was born in 1915 in Tokyo, Japan, the son of Soetsu Yanagi, who founded the “mingei” movement, which celebrated Japanese folk crafts and the beauty of everyday objects. 

Sori Yanagi Pop Up 3

Yanagi is a full-blown modernist who merged simplicity and practicality with elements of traditional Japanese crafts. His works reconcile the two worlds of craft and industry by adapting the benefits of the handmade with the advantages of industrial production. His Butterfly Stool (1954) is one such iconic example. The clever design is made up of two identical pieces of moulded plywood, held together with a simple brass fitting. (Available at Kapok for $935, details below).

Sori Yanagi Pop Up 2

The exhibition also marks the launch of ‘Essays by Sori Yanagi’, a highly anticipated account of his design philosophies, as one of the few texts on the designer which is available in English.

A selection of iconic items by Sori Yanagi will be available for sale at kapok at NDC. Prices range from $36 – $189 for crockery and pans, and $7 – $255 for individual cutlery and sets.

kapok, 111 Middle Road, #01-05 National Design Centre.
April 28 – May 17, 2015. Open daily: 11am – 9pm.

Exhibition
April 29 – May 17, 2015. Free Admission.  Tues – Sun, 11am – 7pm.
Lim Hak Tai Gallery, NAFA Campus 1, 80 Bencoolen Street.