Dougong was used on many buildings started from Spring and Autumn period (770- 476BC) to create buildings from temples to palaces in China. The pieces are fitted together without using glue or fasteners and require incredible skill and precision to fabricate each timber piece.
Manhole covers are a familiar sight around the world.
But did you know that designer manhole covers in Japan are currently gaining so much attention as a new type of region-specific item/artwork, that they can cost up to $900?
Japan’s decorated manhole covers initially took shape as a public relations campaign for sewers. Beginning in the 1950s, the cast plates featured simple geometric patterns, such as the “Tokyo” and “Nagoya” designs.
Yasutake Kameda conceived the intricate, artistic versions in 1985, to help warm a skeptical rural population to the idea of the costly but necessary modernization of the country’s sewer system.
Local design manholes in Japan feature elements special to a particular location: a town emblem, landmark, event, or official bird or flower. Today an estimated 95% of Japan’s 1,718 municipalities, across all 47 prefectures, now host their own unique covers.
Typically, a designed manhole cover costs approximately $585. The color, however, is applied carefully by hand, and nearly doubles the price of a manhole to more than $900.
“Art should cause violence to be set aside. And it is only art that can accomplish this"
This is the first in a series of articles about peacebuilding & arts, exploring how creative practices help us revisit our past & reimagine our futures #Remembrance
https://t.co/oNtB67d9Xx
Joan Jara passed away yesterday at the age of 96, born in the UK she studied dance and lived in Chile where she met and married musician Victor Jara. He was murdered during the coup in Chile and she never stopped fighting for justice. Rest in power Joan.
@Fund
“Every time I hear a political speech or I read those of our leaders, I am horrified at having, for years, heard nothing which sounded human.
It is always the same words telling the same lies.
And the fact that men accept this, that the people’s anger has not destroyed these hollow clowns, strikes me as proof that men attribute no importance to the way they are governed; that they gamble – yes, gamble – with a whole part of their life and their so called 'vital interests.”
― Albert Camus