Driftwood Dinosaurs

During a recent trip to Los Angeles, my daughter and I stopped into Tortoise General Store on Abbot Kinney Boulevard.

Descriptions of the place from friends and reviewers evoked memories of Japanese design-craft stores in Tokyo like Arts + Science in our old neighborhood Daikanyama, and Claska in Gakugeidaigaku.

They were right!

While browsing we were kindly reminded of life in Japan through everyday objects like teapots and scissors and tenugui.

One particular item, a book of photographs by artist Mitsuru Koga ( 古賀充 ) caught our attention because it looked familiar but we had never seen it before.

The book, Driftwood Dinosaurs, presents a series of photographs of fictitious dinosaur bone patterns made on the beach from pieces of driftwood, carefully assembled to resemble scenes from a paleontological excavation.

Koga’s idea is playful but the craftwork demonstrated by the skeletons and the book production itself are masterful.

This project/book keeps coming back to remind me of how powerful a simple idea can be when produced well.

For those interested in art book publishing, Driftwood Dinosaurs is published by Utrecht Books, one of the organizers of the Tokyo Art Book Fair. If you are either an art person or a book person, and in Tokyo in the autumn, the TABF is worth a stop.

More here …

https://shop.tortoisegeneralstore.com/products/driftwood-dinosaurs-by-mitsuru-koga

https://utrecht.jp/search?q=driftwood&type=product

https://tokyoartbookfair.com/en/