>> Turn off the Lights and Watch the Stars on October 17--Lights-Down Event in Kofu Valley
>> Candle Night Summer Solstice 2009--Report on June 21
>> Event report: Dim It 2009--Hong Kong
>> Enjoy the Starlight--The International Year of Astronomy 2009
>> Event: 'Dim It' in Hong Kong-- Lights-out Event on June 21 (Updated)
>> Many People Enjoyed Candle Night--Candle Night Saskatchewan, Canada
>> Brief Report on Candle Night December 2008
>> Candle Night in Slovenia--Event Report in December 2009
>> Candle Night in Zenryouji Temple--'Go home make a wish'
>> Recreating Ancient Night of 'Heian' Dynasty--Lights-down at Kyoto Gyoen Forests
>> Event Report: Dim It--Hong Kong
>> Event Report: Lights Out Day in China
>> Event Report: Lights Out Day--Taiwan
>> Event Report: Candle Night Korea
>> Over 65,000 Facilities to Join--MOE's Lights Down Campaign
>> Event Update: Candle Night Korea
>> Brief Report of Candle Night Winter Solstice 2007
>> Artist's Performances--Candle Night in Governador Valadares, Brazil
>> Getting the Candle Night Message Across to the World--Fuji Xerox Co.
>> A Family's Wishes on Candle Night--The Story of Ivory
>> Effects of MOE's "Lights Down" Campaign June 2007
>> Candle Night in Taipei 2007
>> Candle Night Summer Solstice 2007 in Tokyo
>> MOE's 'Lights Down Campaign'--Black Illumination 2007
>> Mauritius held the 2nd Candle Night.
>> "Five-minute Action" took place in Europe, Feb 1, 2007
>> Reports from Overseas--December 2006
>> Candle Night Winter Solstice 2006--Kobe, Japan
>> Preparation also Underway in Candlelight--South Korea Winter 2006
>> A Brief Report of Candle Night Summer Solstice 2006
>> MOE's Black Illumination 2006
>> National Candle Night in Mauritius 2006
>> Milk Carton Lanterns Lighting up Kumamoto
>> Beeswax candle workshop and volunteer meeting at JFS
>> Candle Night Winter Solstice 2006--Rikkyo University
>> A Living Organism--Candle Night in Sapporo 2005
>> Candle Night in Shanghai 2005
>> Greetings to Candle Nighters on the other side of the world.
>> Candle Night in South Korea 2005
>> Candle Night at Harajuku Cat Street
>> 'Candle Night'-Summer Solstice 2004 in Japan
Candle Night at Harajuku Cat Street
"Creator's Candle Design Exhibition," a new kind of event, was held at the "Candle Night at Harajuku Cat Street" in Tokyo on December 21, 2004.
The "Candle Night at Harajuku Cat Street"has been held on the nights of Winter Solstice since 2002. Every year, design students decorate using candles under the theme of "Proposition to Reduce Excessive Lighting from Urban Nights."
In addition to the decoration, "Creator's Candle Design Exhibition" was held in 2004, in which creators in various fields such as graphic design and city planning, joined in and designed artistic candles for the exhibition.
The participants were Naoto Fukazawa, Ayumi Han, Taku Sato, Kazuko Fujie, Hidetoshi Ono, Kaoru Mende, Kazunari Hattori, Yasuhiro Suzuki, and Ryosuke Uehara & Yoshie Watanabe (D-BROS). Those foremost creators designed candles, seeking "a new candle design," which is a simple but challenging theme. Thus ten sets of unique art candles were created and showcased on the fifth floor of "Tree of Life "at Harajuku, a shop dealing with herbs, essential oils and so on. With the lights turned off, the candles were burning with dim flames in the dark exhibition site, displaying their design challenge.
Kaoru Mende, a lighting designer, created artwork named "Eroding Paraffin Lake," a flat white candle embedded with blue candles. As the candle burns, the blue and white wax melts creating a beautiful blue lake spreading across the white shore with an orange flame flickering on the lake.
Yasuhiro Suzuki, an artist, focused on the dissolving nature of candles and created three art candles: "Balance Scale," "Cup and Ball," a Japanese traditional wooden toy and "Spoon." The balance scale made of candle wax was displayed first unbalanced, then its irregularly set wicks were lit and started to melt and ended up balancing at a certain moment. The moment was so fantastic and the visitors who happened to see it balance were excited with the intellectual performance.
Taku Satoh, a graphic designer, made a candle in the shape of plastic bottle bottom, named "Rutobotoppe", a back slang of "Pettobotoru," which means a "Plastic bottle" in Japanese. The uniquely designed candle molded a plastic bottle upside down with a wick in the center of the bottom of the bottle. The artist who designed package for a plastic beverage bottle before, wanted people to notice how beautiful the bottles are and also humorously expressed the phrase "being lit on one's bottom" meaning to be pressured to meet the deadline, because this exhibition was held on winter solstice, around the end of year, the busiest time of year in Japan.
There were other candles that creators designed focusing on the shadows of flames, expressing how candle wax melts. Those exhibited ten sets of art candles, reflecting each creator's idea and style, entertained people who visited the exhibition.
Even though, those ten sets of candles were artistic expressions by the creators, they gave visitors encouragement to enjoy nighttime in the dim candle light. We hope to keep on holding new types of events like this one.
"The Creator's Candle Design Exhibition"
Time: December 21, 2004
Place: Tree of Life, Harajuku
Participants: Naoto Fukazawa, Ayumi Han, Taku Sato, Kazuko Fujie, Hidetoshi Ono,
Kaoru Mende, Kazunari Hattori, Yasuhiro Suzuki, and Ryosuke Uehara + Yoshie Watanabe
(D-BROS),
Co-Sponsored by Kameyma Candle
Ayako Shimizu
Candle Night Committee
May 15, 2005
