Japanese art: finding beauty in the everyday

Join Kathryn Hunyor and Toby Slade to explore new ways of seeing and appreciating Japanese art, design and culture.

Over four weeks, they will uncover the traditions of fashion and decorative arts, architecture, gardens, and how art and design have become essential to public life in cities like Tokyo, and regional centres from Niigata to Naoshima.

In Japan, the kimono is a canvas, the tearoom a gallery, gardens are palettes of nature, and architecture merges form and function. While in the West we often encounter art in gallery and museum settings, art in Japan permeates everyday life.

Kathryn Hunyor is a Japanese-speaking curator and consultant. She is head of international tours for the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales. Toby Slade is associate professor of fashion at the University of Technology Sydney. He is the author of Japanese fashion: a cultural history and Introducing Japanese popular culture.

Each lecture will be held on Friday and repeated on Saturday in the Domain Theatre. Each session includes a 15-minute intermission, during which tea and coffee will be provided in the Domain Theatre foyer.