Spanning 5 years, Urchin set the tone and lead the creative direction of the brand until it became Australia’s number one imported beer. Activations included alignment with ‘underground / emerging artists and galleries, street posters, limited edition packaging and a retail / art exhibition themed on the Japanese term ‘wabi-sabi’ called Silver + Black in Melbourne and Sydney which included artists from around the globe.
Asahi Silver+Black Exhibition
Manifesto
The intention of Silver+Black is a play on light and dark to create a space of cultural enrichment and inspiration. Visitors are presented with a curated selection of works that, when placed together acknowledge the spirit of the wabi-sabi way and lay foundation for a modern approach of embracing the perfection of degradation and the beautification of contamination, through art, limited edition objects, hand crafted fashion items, found objects, assemblages and installations. These items are either presented as beautifully new and imperfect, evolving toward potential or decayed and oxidised moving towards the light of impermanence. Visitors intimately experience these pieces that are presented honestly and in new ways for new considerations. Foreboding, yet beautiful silhouettes form against the light reminiscent of samurai emerging from the morning fog.
These shapes are modern but evoke memories from the past. Welcoming the spirit of wabi-sabi into our contemporary world.
This forging of clean, reductive modernist principles with traditional interpretations of historic Japanese culture and future contexts bow to each other, acknowledging each others strength and open to the possibilities of what can be achieved together.
WABI-SABI - finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness.
The curator describes the philosopy behind the project and in particular gives examples of how some artists have embraced the wabi-sabi theme.
