Following its debut last year, Tokyo Frontline has returned to 3331 Arts Chiyoda. The theme this year was 'emotional material' and featured a selection of exhibiting young galleries and 'project' collaborations with units, organizations and corporations.Photo: William Andrews
Smaller than last year, nevertheless the self-proclaimed 'new concept' art fair occupies the whole of the ground floor of the former school building.Photo: William Andrews
Much of what makes Frontline different from other Japanese art fairs is its 'exhibition sales area': open spaces and installations rather than dreaded booths.Photo: William Andrews
Photo: William Andrews
'ECTOPLASM' (2010-2011) by Takahiro KomuroPhoto: William Andrews
A member of Kohei Nawa's Sandwich 'creative platform for contemporary art' unit, Aihara Beads Store presented bizarre baby furniture.Photo: William Andrews
Guests crowd round the jewelry store-style drawers that held gallery deux poissons' miniature exhibits.Photo: William Andrews
Hanging characters from Takuya Yamashita, also part of the Sandwich unit, were installed at various spots throughout the art fair.Photo: William Andrews
Last year Tokyo Frontline also used the gymnasium upstairs but for 2012 instead it was being occupied by a separate event, Fantastic Eccentric Show. The circus-cum-installation-cum-performance-art-cum-theme-park certainly lived up to its name and left at least this reporter pretty baffled.Photo: William Andrews
Tokyo Frontline opened on Friday in Akihabara, while G-tokyo 2012, following two previous incarnations, opened on Saturday at Mori Arts Center Gallery in Roppongi.Photo: William Andrews
Again proving that less is more, it features 'just' a select sixteen galleries exhibiting in large booths, most of which focus on solo artist installations. At the Mizuma Art Gallery space visitors admired the large wooden Koji Tanada sculptures, 'Namikaze'.Photo: William Andrews
Playful Simon Fujiwara works at the Taro Nasu booth beg for vistors' coins.Photo: William AndrewsWhile new work by Chihara Shiota weaved a spell at Kenji Taki Gallery.Photo: William Andrews
William Andrews came to Japan in 2004. He first lived in Osaka, where he was a translator for Kansai Art Beat. Arriving in Tokyo in 2008, he now works as an writer, editor and translator. He writes a blog about Japanese radicalism and counterculture and one about Tokyo contemporary theatre. He is the author of Dissenting Japan: A History of Japanese Radicalism and Counterculture, from 1945 to Fukushima.
